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Gregor Mendel
Known as the father of genetics, he discovered the basic principles of hereditary through experiments in his monastery's garden. His experiments showed that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, subsequently becoming the foundation of the modern genetics leading to the study of hereditary. (1856-1863) -
Frederick Miescher
Friedrich Miescher was the first scientist to recognize and identify DNA as a distinct molecule, through his isolation of “nuclein,” which is DNA with associated proteins, from cell nuclei. -
Thomas Morgan Hunt
He discovered the white eye mutation of the fruit fly. He spent years studying the genetic mutations the fruit flies went through over several generations under certain environment. Figured out genes were on chromosomes. (1910-1928) -
Alfred Sturtevant
-drew a logical conclusion from Morgan’s theories of crossing-over, suggesting that the information gained from these experimental crosses could be used to plot out the actual location of genes
-constructed first genetic map, representation of the physical locations of several genes located on the X chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster -
Frederick Griffith
-discovered the “transforming principle” in pneumococcus bacteria
-first experiment suggesting that bacteria are capable of transferring genetic information through a process known as transformation -
Harriet Creighton & Barbara McClintock
-provided demonstration that the recombination of genes linked on a chromosome requires the physical exchange of segments of the chromosome with its homologous partner -
Oswald Avery (and MacLeod & McCarthy)
They discovered the “transforming principle”. This proved that DNA, not protein can change the properties of cells. This also clarified the chemical nature of cells. -
Al Hershey & Martha Chase
-tracked the transfer of proteins and DNA between a virus and its host
-helped to confirm that DNA is genetic material
-showed that when bacteriophages, which are composed of DNA and protein, infect bacteria, their DNA enters the host bacterial cell, but most of their protein doesn’t -
Rosalind Franklin
She discovered and took the first picture of the double helix DNA with an X-ray image of a molecule. This image is known as “photograph 51”. -
James Watson & Frances Crick
They used Franklin’s work to build a model of DNA, and make connections between hereditary information and DNA. This later won a nobel prize. -
Erwin Chargaff
He discovered two rules that led to the discovery of the structure of DNA -
The number of guanine units equals the number of cytosine units and the number of adenine units equals the number of thymine units.
The relative amounts of guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine bases varies between different species, hinting that DNA is genetic material not protein -
Meselson & Stahl
They confirmed that DNA replication is semiconservative. This means that every strand of DNA serves as a template to make a new, complementary strand. -
Joe Hin Tjio
-used newly discovered technique to separate chromosomes from nucleus of cell; cytogenetics (study of the relationship between the structure and activities of chromosomes and the mechanisms of heredity
-established that there are 46 chromosomes, arranged in 23 pairs
-his work led to 1959 discovery that people with down syndrome have additional chromosome in their cells (1955 & 1959) -
Herb Boyer
Herb Boyer helped invent rDNA technology, which is recombinant DNA technology. rDNA is the way which genetics material from one organism is artificially introduced into the genome of another organism and then replicated and expressed by that other organism. His experiment that led to the creation of rDNA technology -
Alec Jeffreys
Alec Jeffreys led the experiment that led to the discovery of DNA fingerprinting, which has allowed for hundreds of criminals to be put away and people to have been proven innocent. -
Craig Venter
-first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell
-synthetic cell is called Mycoplasma mycoides
-genomes can be designed in computer, chemically made in laboratory, and transplanted into recipient cell to produce a new self-replicating cell controlled only by synthetic genome (1995-200) -
Ian Wilmut
Ian Wilmot was the first person to successfully clone a multicultural organism. He created “Dolly the sheep” from three different mothers, and used different DNA from each one to create her.