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Gregor Mendel
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. -
Friedrich Miesher
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. -
William Bateson
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. -
Sir Archibald Garrod
A human disease is first attributed to genetic causes ("inborn errors of metabolism"). (Sir Archibald Garrod, alkaptonuria) -
William Bateson
The word "genetics" is coined by William Bateson. -
T. H. Morgan
The chromosome theory of heredity is confirmed in studies of fly eye color inheritance by T.H. Morgan and colleagues -
Fred Griffith
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. -
Beadle and Tatum
One gene encodes one protein, as described by Beadle and Tatum. -
Avery, MacLeos, and McCarty
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. -
Erwin Chargaff
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. -
Hershey and Chase
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 -
Watson and Crick
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 -
Meselson and Stahl
DNA replication is semi-conservative, as shown by Meselson and Stahl using equilibrium density gradient centrifugation.
