Final answer:
Mendel chose traits with discontinuous variation to establish the basic laws of inheritance, leading to the understanding of dominant and recessive patterns and independent assortment of alleles.
Step-by-step explanation:
The quality of the traits that Gregor Mendel chose for his studies was crucial in allowing him to establish the basic laws of inheritance. Specifically, he selected traits that exhibited discontinuous variation, meaning they were clearly distinguishable from one another such as violet versus white flowers. This characteristic allowed Mendel to discern that traits do not blend but are inherited as discrete units, manifesting in distinct classes. Mendel formulated his findings into what we now know as Mendel's laws of inheritance, including the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment. An example of these laws can be seen in Mendel's dihybrid crosses, where he observed that alleles for different traits such as pea color and shape segregate independently of one another during meiosis.
Mendel's subsequent discovery that traits follow specific patterns of dominance and recessivity was also seminal. When he crossed purple and white flowered pea plants, all the offspring had purple flowers, showing dominance of the purple flower allele over the white one. This observation led to the establishment of dominant and recessive inheritance patterns. Mendel's work was not initially recognized until after his death, when it was rediscovered around 1900, as scientists began understanding the chromosomal basis of heredity.