Gregor Johann Mendel

Austrian monk and biologist. Founder of modern genetics. Born on July 20th to a poor farming family with a small orchard in the small Moravian village of Heitzendorf. After studying hard, he graduated from a junior college in Olmütz (now Olomouc, Czech Republic) and was recommended to the St. Thomas Monastery in Brünn (now Brno, Czech Republic). At the monastery, which was the center of arts and science in the region, his talents in botany, mathematics, and physics blossomed, and he also served as a substitute teacher at a nearby junior high school. Mendel, who was thought to be better suited to teaching than clergy, took the exam to become a full teacher at the urging of those around him, but failed. It was not long after he failed the exam that Mendel rented a corner of the monastery garden and began his research on the genetics of peas.

This research on peas (1856-1862) was compiled in a paper titled "Experiments on Plant Hybridization" and presented at the Brünn Nature Society in 1865. It was printed in the society's journal the following year, 1866, and sent to universities and research institutes around the country, but no one recognized its importance, and it was not until 1900, 35 years after its publication, that three researchers, de Vries from the Netherlands, Correns from Germany, and Tschermak from Austria, each independently recognized the importance of this paper and introduced it to the world.

The laws of heredity discovered by Mendel were later summarized as the "law of segregation," "law of dominance," and "law of independent assortment," and together with his research methods, they became the starting point of modern genetics.

Mendel's research was ignored for so long partly because there was prejudice against him, because he was merely a monk and not a researcher who majored in biology at university, but also because his innovative research methods, such as viewing the genetic traits of living organisms as a collection of individual unit traits rather than as a whole, and introducing mathematical methods to process experimental results, were not understood, and because the academic world at the time was more interested in mutation than genetics, due to the influence of C. Darwin's theory of evolution. This is also evident from the fact that Naegeli of the University of Munich, one of the leaders in the botany world at the time and whom Mendel taught, instructed Mendel to change the subject of his experiments to the plant Brassica napus, which he had used as material for his own mutation research.

Mendel's research on the brookweed, which was difficult to use in crossbreeding experiments, damaged his eyesight, and in the 1868 election he was elected abbot of St. Thomas Monastery, which meant he was busy with odd jobs and was unable to continue his genetic research. In 1874 the Austrian parliament enacted a law to collect taxes from monasteries, but he rose up in opposition to the law and for the last 10 years of his life he devoted himself to fighting to have it repealed. As he fought against the government's appeasement policies, he was betrayed and isolated by those around him, and he gradually became a cranky old man who distrusted people, and he passed away on January 6, 1884.

[Mafune Kazuo]

"The Life of Mendel" by Hugo Ilcis, translated by Rei Nagashima (1960, Tokyo Sogensha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

オーストリアの修道院僧、生物学者。近代遺伝学の創始者。7月20日モラビア地方の小村ハイツェンドルフの小さな果樹園をもつ貧しい農家に生まれる。苦学しながらオルミュッツ（現、チェコのオロモウツ）の短期大学を卒業し、ブリュン（現、チェコのブルノ）の聖トマス修道院に推薦された。この地方の芸術、科学の中心だったこの修道院で、植物学や数学、物理学への能力が開花し、近くの中学校の代用教員も務めるようになった。聖職者より教師のほうが適しているとみられたメンデルは、周囲の人々の勧めで正教員になるための検定試験を受けたが合格しなかった。メンデルが修道院の庭の一隅を借りて、エンドウの遺伝研究を開始したのは、検定試験に不合格になってからまもなくのことであった。

　このエンドウの研究（1856～1862）は1865年に「植物の雑種に関する実験」と題する論文にまとめられ、ブリュンの自然研究会の席上で発表された。翌1866年その会の紀要に印刷され、各地の大学、研究所に送られたが、その重要性を認める者はなく、発表後35年を経た1900年にようやく、オランダのド・フリース、ドイツのコレンス、オーストリアのチェルマクの3人が、それぞれ独立にこの論文の重要性に気づき世に紹介した。

　メンデルが発見した遺伝法則は、のちに「分離の法則」「優劣の法則」「独立の法則」などにまとめられ、その研究方法とともに、近代遺伝学の出発点となった。

　メンデルの研究が長い間無視された理由には、彼が大学で生物学を専攻した研究者ではなく、一介の修道院僧にすぎなかったことへの偏見もあるが、生物の遺伝形質を全体としてとらえず、個々の単位形質の集まりとしてとらえたり、実験結果の処理に数学的方法を導入するといった斬新(ざんしん)な研究方法が理解されなかったことや、当時の学界がC・ダーウィンの進化論の影響などで遺伝より変異に関心を集めていたことなどがあげられる。メンデルが教えを請うていた当時の植物学界のリーダーの一人、ミュンヘン大学のネーゲリが、自分の変異研究の材料にしていたミヤマコウゾリナに実験対象を変えるようメンデルに指示したことにもそれが表れている。

　メンデルは、交配実験のやりにくいミヤマコウゾリナの研究で目を悪くしたうえ、1868年の選挙で聖トマス修道院の院長に選ばれ、雑用に追われる身となり、遺伝研究を続けることができなくなった。1874年オーストリア議会が修道院からも徴税する法律を制定、彼はその反対闘争に立ち上がり、死ぬまでの10年間はその撤回のための闘いに全精力を傾けた。政府の懐柔策と闘ううちに、周囲からも裏切られ、孤立し、しだいに人を信じない気むずかしい老人となり、1884年1月6日この世を去った。

［真船和夫］

『フーゴー・イルチス著、長島礼訳『メンデル伝』（1960・東京創元社）』

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