Pleiotropy correlations and responses to selection most often exemplify pleiotropy. Pleiotropic traits had been previously recognized in the scientific community but had not been experimented on until Gregor Mendel's 1866 pea plant experiment. Mendel recognized that certain pea plant traits (seed coat color, flower color, and axial spots) seemed to be inherited together; however, their correlation to a single gene has never been proven. The term "pleiotropie" was first coined by Ludwig Plate in his Festschrift, which was published in 1910. He originally defined pleiotropy as occurring when "several characteristics are dependent upon ... [inheritance]; these characteristics will then always appear
Theoretical and Applied Genetics factor is 3.264. This ranks it second out of 74 journals in the category "Agronomy", first out of 30 in "Horticulture", 23rd out of 187 in "Plant Sciences", and 59th out of 156 in "Genetics & Heredity". Theoretical and Applied Genetics Theoretical and Applied Genetics is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes articles in the fields of plant genetics, genomics, and biotechnology. It was established in 1929 as "Der Züchter", which name was changed to the current one in 1968. Previous editors include H. Stubbe (1946–1976) and H. F. Linskens (1977–1987). The journal publishes