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TURNING POINTS
It would be a century after Mendel’s
experiments before other scientists could CHAPTER ONE
observe mitosis, or the process of cellular
division, using high-powered microscopes.
THE “SECRET THE HUMAN GENOME

OF LIFE”

he roots of the HGP were laid down in the mid-1850s in the

garden of a monastery in Brno, a city near Prague, Czech
T Republic. For a long time, people had wondered about the

principles of heredity. For example, why would a brother
and sister with the same parents have different-colored

eyes and hair? A monk named Gregor Mendel decided
to answer that question and many others about the way

in which one generation passes along its characteristics
to the next.

Mendel decided to study the pea plants in the
monastery’s garden. The main reason for this choice

was that pea plants had seven characteristics with only
two contrasting forms. He called these characteristics

factors. They included the height of the plant (tall or
short), the texture of the peas (smooth or wrinkled), Gregor Mendel

pea color (yellow or green), flower color (white or purple), flower position
(at the tip of the plant or along the side), pod color (green or yellow), and

shape of the pod (fully inflated or constricted). He wanted to see if he could

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