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Mendel's paper is published: units of inheritance in pairs; dominance and recessiveness; equal segregation; independent assortment. These ideas are not recognized for 34 years.
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DNA (first called "nuclein") is identified by Friedrich Miescher as an acidic substance found in cell nuclei. The significance of DNA is not appreciated for over 70 years.
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Mendel's experiments from 1866 are "rediscovered" and confirmed by three separate researchers (one Dutch, one German, one Austrian). A British man (William Bateson) soon translates Mendel's paper into English and champions the study of heredity in England.
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A human disease is first attributed to genetic causes ("inborn errors of metabolism"). (Sir Archibald Garrod, alkaptonuria)
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The word "genetics" is coined by William Bateson.
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The chromosome theory of heredity is confirmed in studies of fly eye color inheritance by T.H. Morgan and colleagues
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Some component of heat-killed virulent bacteria can "transform" a non-virulent
strain to become virulent, as shown by Fred Griffith. This sets the stage for work done in 1944. -
One gene encodes one protein, as described by Beadle and Tatum.
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DNA is the molecule that mediates heredity, as shown in Pneumococcus transformation experiments by Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty. Most people were skeptical of these findings until 1952.
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In DNA, there are equal amounts of A and T, and equal amounts of C and G, as shown by Erwin Chargaff. However, the A+T to C+G ratio can differ between organisms.
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DNA is the molecule that mediates heredity, as shown in bacteriophage labeling experiments by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase. This confirmation of the 1944 results really convinced everyone
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DNA is in the shape of a double helix with antiparallel nucleotide chains and specific base pairing. This was deduced by Watson and Crick, who used Rosalind Franklin's data provided by Maurice Wilkins
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DNA replication is semi-conservative, as shown by Meselson and Stahl using equilibrium density gradient centrifugation.
