First came his observation of the quality that was later called segregation. He began by outlining his idea that some factors in the germ cells, still unidentified, were able to pass on traits from parent to offspring. Whatever they were, he deduced, they separated while getting ready to pass to the next generation through the gametes of the parents. Mendel also deduced that the sex cells somehow changed from having a double dose of hereditary factors to having only one.
