-
Gregor Mendel publishes work on heredity traits in peas. He notes that certain traits are passed from parent to offspring. Later these factors are called genes.
-
Friedrich Miescher describes an acidic substance in a cell's nuclei. This substance, first called nuclein, is now identified as DNA.
-
Thomas Hunt Morgan conducts experiments where he demonstrates that genes are located linearly along chromosomes.
-
Fredrick Griffith, in an experiment with mice, transfers the fatal component of a bacteria causing pneumonia to a benign strain of bacteria, which then cause a fatal pneumonia in the mice.
-
William Astbury takes an X-ray diffraction pictures of DNA.
-
Erwin Chargaff demonstrates that the bases of DNA are equal. There is an A for every T and a C for every G.
-
Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin image DNA crystals via X-ray. These images are the basis for the conclusions of Watson and crick.
-
Researchers fuse a segment of DNA containing a gene from the African clawed frog Xenopus with DNA from the bacterium E. coli. The frog DNA was copied and the gene it contained directed the production of a specific frog protein.
-
The FADA approves the sale of genetically modified food. This is the first kind of genetically modified food.
-
Automated sequencing technology allows genome projects to accelerate.
-
The first cloning of a mammal (Dolly the sheep) is performed by Ian Wilmut and colleagues, from the Roslin institute in Scotland.
-
The Drosophila genome is completed. The Arabidopsis genome is completed. The human genome is reported to be completed.
-
The sequence of the human genome is released, and the "post-genomic era" officially begins.
-
Controversies continue over human and animal cloning, research on stem cells, and genetic modification of crops.
