History of Genetics

By shyshows

  • Mendel - Began study about the basic principles of inheritance

    He concluded that some characteristics of the parents were passed on to their offspring and future generations. And stablished the three laws of inheritance.

  • Darwin - Wallace Paper

    Darwin completed with a full theory of natural selections where species changed over the years in order to adapt to the environment, and traits would change creating new species from a same ancestor.

  • Darwin - Origin of species

    Darwin writes the origin of species where he describes natural selection. It proposed the theory of natural evolution by natural selection

  • Mendel - Plant hybridization

    At this year he publish his scientific report regarding the area, making ground breaking research.

  • Ernst Haeckel - Cellular Research

    Haeckel predicted that genetic material was found in the cell’s nucleus.

  • Friedrich Miescher - Chemical and Cellular Research

    Miescher successfully isolated phosphate-rich chemicals from the nuclei of human white blood cells, and called it nuclein. Later proved that these chemicals existed in other species.

  • Lambert Adolphe, Jacques Quetelet - Statistic Discoveries

    Demonstrated that statistical analysis was important for biological research. The application of this knowledge in genetics allowed scientists to execute deeper and more conclusive research.

  • Walther Flemming, Edouard van Beneden -Discovery of different terminology

    Flemming was the first to identify the chromosomal movement in cells using analine dyes in Salamander embryos. With this dye he was able to observe cell division more clearly and visualize the threadlike material in the separation of the cell.

  • Eduard Strasburge - Cellular Cycle Research.

    Eduard Strasburgers was a cytologist which completed research in the cell cycle for plants. He enunciated one of the modern laws of plant cytology, that new nuclei can arise only from the division of other nuclei.

  • August Weismann - Chromosome Behavior

    Proposes an universal theory of chromosome behaviour; predicting the process of meiosis in gametes.

  • Edouard van Beneden - Weismann's confirmation

    Demonstrated the accuracy of Weismann’s hypothesis.

  • Henrich Wilhelm Gottfried Waldeyer - Cellular Terminology

    The condensed material found in a cell’s nucleus was named chromosome.

  • Francis Galton - Publication of Natural Inheritance.

    The book presented a quantitative study of variation amongst traits; creating biometrics.

  • William Bateson - Publication of Materials for the Study of Variation

    Analyses Mendel’s arguments on discontinuous variation; discussing the subject.

  • Karl Pearson - Mathematical Evolution.

    Developed techniques to analyse statistical frequency distributions; used later for mathematical models of evolution.

  • William Bateson - Hibradization in statistics

    Used hybridization between two subjects as a tool for statistical analysis - as Mendel’s work had shown.

  • Carl Correns Hugo de Vries Erich von Tschermak - Mendel's Confirmation

    The German botanist and geneticist, began his research based of George Mendel’s former work. Independently rediscovered the principles stated in his Mendel’s work in a separate model organism, and confirmed his theories.

  • Hugo de Vries - Use of the term mutation

    Employed the word to describe the spontaneous appearance of new traits in Oenothera plants.

  • Hugo de Vries - Use of the term mutation

    Employed the word to describe the spontaneous appearance of new traits in Oenothera plants.

  • C.E. McClung - Determination of sex by chromosomes

    Studied the concept that chromosomes determined sex in some animal species.

  • Walter Sutton Theodor Boveri - Further study on chromosomes

    Determined that each chromosome has a unique physical trait. Demonstrated that chromosomes are found in pairs, and that each parent contributes one member of the pair; which separate during meiosis. Predicts that the unit of heredity resides in chromosomes as a physical manifestation.

  • Archibald Garrod - Alkaptonuria as a hereditary disease.

    The disease is proved to be the first one to show Mendelian inheritance.

  • Nettie Stevens Edmund Wilson- Behavior of sex chromosomes

    Stated XX means female, and XY means male

  • Archibald Garrod - Biochemical progess

    Describes the biochemical genetics of man

  • Wilhelm Johannsen - The word Gene

    Differentiation of phenotype and genotype. First use of the word gene.

  • Thomas Hunt Morgan - Role of chromosomes in heredity

    Discovery of white eyed mutation in the fruit fly Drososphila.

  • Alfred Sturtevant - Genetic Maps

    Development of the first genetic map (Drosophilia).

  • Calving Bridges -Observations of deficiencies, duplications and translocations.

    The first observations of deficiencies, duplications and translocations are made in Drosophilia chromosomes.

  • Frederick Twort, Felix D’Herelle - Description of bacteriophage

    A virus that attacks bacteria is described, bateriophage.

  • Thomas Hunt Morgan

    Demonstration that the number of chromosomes equals the number of linkage groups.

  • A.E. Boycott, C. Diver - Demonstration of maternal inheritance in snails

    Direction of shell coilings of Limnea peregra are thought to be the product of the female’s ooplasm, controlled by the mother’s genotype.

  • H.J. Muller -Mutations in Drosophila are induced through x-rays.

  • F. Griffith - Pneumoccoci transformation is obtained

    This procedure later led to the discovery that DNA is the genetic material.

  • Arne Tiselius - Development of electrophoresis to separate proteins.

  • Harriet Creighton, Barbara McClintock - Demonstration of a physical exchange of genetic material in crossing over.

  • G.W Beadle & B. Ephrussi; A. Kuhn & A. Butenandt - Description of the biochemical genetics responsible for eye pigment in Drosophila.

  • S.E. Luria, Max Delbrück - First demonstration of spontaneous mutations in bacteria.

  • Oswald T. Avery, Colin M. MacLeod & Maclyn McCarty - Demonstration that Deoxyribonucleic acid is the genetic material.

  • S.E Luria - Demonstration of mutations in bacterial viruses.

  • Barbara McClintock - Discovery of transposable elements to explain inducted spontaneous mutations.

  • Erwin Chargaff - Proves that the number of adenines equals the number of thymines, and that the number of guanines equals the number of cytosines.

  • James Watson, Francis Crick - Presents a structural model of DNA, showing two antiparallel chains held together with hydrogen bonds.

  • James Watson Francis Crick - Suggests that DNA contains a code, responsible for protein production.

  • Severo Ochoa - Description of RNA Polymerase.

  • Arthur Kornberg - Purification of DNA Polymerase I from E. Coli.

  • Sydney Brenner, Francois Jacob & Matthew Meselsohn - Described that Protein Synthesis occurs in Ribosomes. Demonstrates that mRNA binds to ribosomes.

  • Waclaw Szybalski W. Summers - Show that only one DNA strand, from the two existing ones, is used during transcription.

  • Jonathan Beckwith - Isolation of the first bacterial gene.

  • Paul Berg - Creation of the first recombinant DNA molecule, between bacterial and viral DNA.

  • Herbert Boyer Stanley Cohen - Recombinant tranformation of E. Coli.

    The insertion of a Kanamycin gene into a plasmid creates a correctly functioning gene. Later, genes from toad were inserted into the same plasmid, and replicated; showing that any gene can be cloned through this method.

  • Frederick Sanger, Walter Gilbert - Development of chain-termination and chemical methods for DNA sequencing.

  • Kary Mullis - Polymerase chain reactions

    During this year Mullis discovered a method for amplifying DNA using a cloning procedure named polymerase chain reactions (PCR). This technique allowed the exponential amplification of DNA into many copies allowing scientists to study sequences of interests.

  • Alec Jeffreys - Genetic Fingerprinting

    This method uses the unique small sequence of DNA, mini-satellites, in and individuals genome in order to identify them. The strands of DNA are then submitted to an endonuclease which cuts corresponding fragments of mini-satellites out which are then separated through electrophoresis to create bands that matchup with a person.

  • Jeremy Nathans - Genes for color blindness

    Jeremy did investigations into the mechanisms which allowed us to see colours, and this led him to discover the genes that code for color vision receptors in light sensing codes in the retina. This allowed him to conclude that variations in these genes cause color blindness.

  • Craig Venter ESTs, fragments of genes

    An expressed-sequence tag (EST) is a DNA sequence created by a portion of RNA molecule copy, all ESTs replicate sequences of genes, they were used to find genes in the genome.

  • Second-generation genetic map of human genome

    A group of french scientists developed the first genetic map that cycled all the human genome using microsatellites as markers and used restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), these were used due to the easy distinction and discovery of micro-satellites. This helped geneticist locate disease genes in chromosomes.

  • Escherichia Coli Project

    The complete genome sequence of Escherichia Coli (Bacteria living in intestine of people and animal, they are an important part of healthy human intestinal tract) was published. E coli had been studied by biochemists to study the basic reaction of life and to obtain information on gene action regulation.

  • Human Genome Project

    The human genome is published as an estimation says there are between 35,000 and 40,000, genes. 90 percent of the sequence is done with a 99.99% accuracy.

  • Complete sequence of plasmodium falciparum

    The completion of plasmodium falciparum in 2002 is published, the parasite which causes Malaria, it consists of 5300 genes in its genome.

  • HGP (2003)

    Completion of the human genome sequence. Determining the exact order of the base pairs in a DNA segment.

  • Pacific Biosciences

    Single molecule DNA sequencing enables DNA and RNA sequencing directly to biological samples, facilitating diagnostics and clinical applications.

  • Treatment for childhood leukemia

    Works by genetically modifying a patient's own blood cells and turning them into cancer killers. Improvement into gene genetics. Doctors currently work with 3 types of gene therapies.
    Replacing a mutated gene which generates diseases into a healthy copy of this gene.
    Inactivating or knocking out a mutated gene.

    Introducing a new gene into the body to treat a disease.