visit history of genetics
History of Genetics Timeline
Jo Ann Lane
1994 Woodrow Wilson Collection
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
As scientists sought to understand more about the nature of
inheritance of traits, hereditary processes were explained in ever
increasing detail beginning at the populational level and going toward
the molecular level. Keeping this fact in mind will help in
understanding the timeline which follows.
Year Scientist(s) Discovery
Joint announcement of the theory of
natural selection-that members of a
1858 Charles Darwin Alfred population who are better adapted to
Russel Wallace
the environment survive and pass on
their traits.
1859 Charles Darwin Published The Origin of Species.
Published the results of his
1866 Gregor Mendel investigations of the inheritance of
"factors" in pea plants.
Carl Correns Hugo de Mendel's principles were
1900 Vries Erich von independently discovered and
Tschermak verified, marking the beginning of
modern genetics.
Pointed out the interrelationships
1902 Walter Sutton between cytology and Mendelism,
closing the gap between cell
morphology and heredity.
Independently described the behavior
1905 Nettie Stevens Edmund of sex chromosomes-XX determines
Wilson
female; XY determines male.
Proposed that some human diseases
1908 Archibald Garrod are due to "inborn errors of
metabolism" that result from the
lack of a specific enzyme.
Proposed a theory of sex-linked
inheritance for the first mutation
1910 Thomas Hunt Morgan discovered in the fruit fly,
Drosophila, white eye. This was
followed by the gene theory,
including the principle of linkage.
1927 Hermann J. Muller Used x-rays to cause artificial gene
mutations in Drosophila.
Proposed that some unknown
1928 Fred Griffith "principle" had transformed the
harmless R strain of Diplococcus to
the virulent S strain.
1931 Harriet B. Creighton Demonstrated the cytological proof
Barbara McClintock for crossing-over in maize.
Irradiated the red bread mold,
1941 George Beadle Neurospora, and proved that the gene
Edward Tatum produces its effect by regulating
particular enzymes.
Oswald Avery Reported that they had purified the
1944 Colin MacLeod transforming principle in Griffith's
Maclyn McCarty experiment and that it was DNA.
Organized a phage course at Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory which was
1945 Max Delbruck taught for 26 consecutive years.
This course was the training ground
of the first two generations of
molecular biologists
late Developed the hypothesis of
1940s Barbara McClintock transposable elements to explain
color variations in corn.
Discovered a one-to-one ratio of
1950 Erwin Chargaff adenine to thymine and guanine to
cytosine in DNA samples from a
variety of organisms.
1951 Rosalind Franklin Obtained sharp X-ray diffraction
photographs of DNA.
Used phages in which the protein was
1952 Martha Chase labeled with 35S and the DNA with
Alfred Hershey 32P for the final proof that DNA is
the molecule of heredity.
1953 Francis Crick Solved the three-dimensional
James Watson structure of the DNA molecule.
Used isotopes of nitrogen to prove
1958 Matthew Meselson the semiconservative replication of
Frank Stahl
DNA.
Purified DNA polymerase I from E.
1958 Arthur Kornberg coli, the first enzyme that made DNA
in a test tube.
Led teams that cracked the genetic
1966 Marshall Nirenberg code- that triplet mRNA codons
H. Gobind Khorana specify each of the twenty amino
acids.
Isolated the first restriction
1970 Hamilton Smith enzyme, HindII, that could cut DNA
Kent Wilcox molecules within specific
recognition sites.
1972 Paul Berg Produced the first recombinant DNA
Herb Boyer molecules.
Led the team at Cold Spring Harbor
1973 Joseph Sambrook Laboratory that refined DNA
electrophoresis by using agarose gel
and staining with ethidium bromide.
Showed that a recombinant DNA
1973 Annie Chang molecule can be maintained and
Stanley Cohen
replicated in E. coli.
International meeting at Asilomar,
1975 California urged the adoption of
guidelines regulating recombinant
DNA experimentation.
1977 Fred Sanger Developed the chain termination
(dideoxy) method for sequencing DNA.
The first genetic engineering
1977 company (Genentech) is founded,
using recombinant DNA methods to
make medically important drugs.
Somatostatin became the first human
1978 hormone produced using recombinant
DNA technology.
Three independent research teams
1981 announced the discovery of human
oncogenes (cancer genes).
Used blood samples collected by
1983 James Gusella Nancy Wexler and her co-workers to
demonstrate that the Huntington's
disease gene is on chromosome 4.
Published a paper describing the
1985 Kary B. Mullis polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the
most sensitive assay for DNA yet
devised.
The Human Genome Project began with
1988 the goal of determining the entire
sequence of DNA composing human
chromosomes.
Coined the term DNA fingerprinting
1989 Alec Jeffreys and was the first to use DNA
polymorphisms in paternity,
immigration, and murder cases.
Identified the gene coding for the
cystic fibrosis transmembrane
1989 Francis Collins conductance regulator protein (CFTR)
Lap-Chee Tsui
on chromosome 7 that, when mutant,
causes cystic fibrosis.
First gene replacement therapy-T
cells of a four-year old girl were
exposed outside of her body to
1990 retroviruses containing an RNA copy
of a normal ADA gene. This allowed
her immune system to begin
functioning.
FlavrSavr tomatoes, genetically
1993 engineered for longer shelf life,
were marketed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
