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In 1859, Charles Darwin published one of the first books involving genetic evolution. It is called, "On the Origin of Species". It talked about how genetic evolution allowed adaptation over time to produce organisms best suited to the environment.
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Gregor Mendel started to learn about traits that make dominant and recesive genes.
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Charles Darwin discovered the possibility of gemmules as a mechanism of inheritance.
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Walter Sutton created the term gene to define factors on chromizones. He then he observed chromosomal movement during meiosis and developed the chromosomal theory of heredity
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Thomas Hunt Morgan was the first to recognise genes are carried on chromosomes: the basis for modern genetics. He demonstrated the existence of sex-linked genes and expanded trait linkage using "crossing-over"
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The first genetic map was made. It was made by Alfred Sturtevant. He mapped where several fruit flies traveled.
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Thomas Hunt Morgan published the "theory of the gene". This book was based off of Mendelian genetics.
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Electrophoresis was introduces to create a new and technique for seperating protiens in solution. This discovery was made by Anne Tiiselius.
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Frederick Charles Bawden discovered tobacco mosaic virus RNA. This turned out to be more important than he realized.
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Edward Tatum and Joshua Lederberg discovered that bacteria can exchange genetic material directly through conjugation.
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Max Delbruck and Alfred Day Hershey discovered a combination of genetic material from viruses. It was called genetic recombination.
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Erwin Chargaff found that amounts of adenine and thymine and cytosine and guanine in DNA are always about the same. This is now called "Chargaff's Rules"
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James Watson and Francis Crick proposed the double-stranded, helical, complementary, anti-parallel model for DNA
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Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod discovered an important mechanism behind genetic regulation: mappable control functions located on chromosomes in DNA sequence - named "repressor" and "operon"
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Marshall Nirenberg, Heinrich Mathaei and Severo Ochoa cracked the "Genetic Code": a sequence of three nucleotide bases (codon) determine each of amino acids
