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Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel cross bred pea plants to see what characteristics they would generate. Once he recorded that data he let the second generation self pollinate to see what they brought forth. From this experiment he discovered basic hereditary patterns, dominant and recessive traits, the principal of segregation, and independant assortment. -
William Bateson and Reginald Punnett
Bateson and Punnett did experiments with poultry, butterflies, and sweet peas. For the sweet pea experiment, they took two specific characteristics, the flower color and the shape of the pollen. When they crossed these plants they came upon coupling or gene linkage. Another thing that they discovered was the punnett square. -
Thomas Hunt Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan did a lot of experimenting with fruit flies. He would test cross two different fruit flies, for example, one with a gray body and long wings with one with a black body and vestigial wings. From this experiment he discovered the effects of crossing over and genetic recombination frequencies. -
Archibald Garrod
Garrod experimented with inherited diseases, including one called alkaptonuia. This is when your pee turns a dark shade of red. This condition occurs when your enzymes don't break down your pee. From this experiment Garrod learned about the relationship between genes and proteins. He published the "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis. -
Frederick Griffith
For Griffiths experiment he injected combined bacteria of pneumonia into mice to see if they survived or not. He found that two bacteria that didn’t kill the mouse separately killed the mouse when they were combined together. From these results he discovered transformation and DNA's role in the cell. -
George Beadle and Edward Tatum
Beadle and Tatum experimented with orange bread mold. When working with it they found the relations between genes and enzymes and that one gene does specify the production of one enzyme. Beadle and Tatum also found the exact job of gene; to tell instructions to make a specific protein or enzyme. -
Erwin Chargaff
Chargaff worked with adenine, thymine, gyanine, and cytosine using DNA. While studing these four elements he found that teh amount of adenine in DNA is the same as the amount of thymine (A=T) and the amount of cytosine is equal to the amount of guanine (G=C). -
Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase
Hershey and Martha Chase used bacteriophage made of only DNA and proteins. The DNA was tagged with radioactive phosphorus and the protein was tagged with radioactive sulfur. They then traced where the radioactivity went, if it was in the liquid or pellet. They found that when the DNA was radioactive it was in the pellet. From this data they concluded that DNA was a genetic material and it transferred information from cells. -
Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin
Wilkins and Franklin took Xrays of DNA. They actually tookt he first picture of DNA. They found out the actual shape of it. -
James Watson and Francis Crick
Watson and Crick took pictures and models of DNA and studied them. They found out that DNA has a double helix. They also realized that DNA has specific base pairing. -
Marshall Nirenberg
Nirenberg synthesized and artificial RNA molecule by linking identical RNA nucleotids with uracil bases. When doing this he found the genetic code for RNA.
