Scientists have exhumed geneticist Gregor Mendel to study his DNA: gunshots - Local News Today

When the man known as the “Father of Genetics” turns 200, how do you celebrate?

By digging up his body and sequencing his DNA, of course.

So did a team of scientists in the Czech Republic this year to celebrate Gregor Mendel, a scientist and monk whose experiments laid the foundation for modern genetics in the mid-19th century.

Mendel lived and worked in Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. 2022 marks the 200th anniversary of Mendel’s birth. Local researchers there — where Mendel has remained something of a hometown hero — sought ways to remember the man and honor the moment. Possibilities included a festival, a scientific conference and a statue.

Astronomer Jiří Dušek, director of the Brno Observatory and Planetarium, wondered if the founder of genetics had ever been subjected to genetic testing.

“So that was the beginning,” says geneticist Šárka Pospíšilová, who is also Vice Rector for Research at Masaryk University in Brno.

The idea of ​​analyzing Mendel’s genes struck her as “crazy” at first.

Despite this, Pospíšilová went to various specialists at the university to ask what might be possible.

“I asked anthropologists who have experience analyzing the remains of various historical figures,” she recalls. She also consulted archaeologists.

Exhuming Mendel from his grave in Brno and having his remains genetically tested turned out to be a doable project — as long as they got Augustinian permission. This is the religious order Mendel belonged to and remains with: The Augustinian Tomb in the city’s central cemetery is said to have contained Mendel’s body.