-
1858
Alfred Russell Wallace sends to Darwin a manuscript "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type" -
1859
Darwin publishes The Origin of Species -
1864
Ernst Haeckel (Häckel) outlines the essential elements of modern zoological classification -
1865
Gregor Johann Mendel presents his principals of heredity [particulate inheritance] to the Brunn Society for Natural History and publishes in the Proceedings of the Brunn Society for Natural History in the following year [CPG p.1] (Brunn is now Brno in Czech Republic) -
1866
EH Haeckel (Häckel) hypothesizes that the nucleus of a cell transmits its hereditary information -
1871
C Darwin publishes Descent of Man (principles of sexual selection) -
1875
F Galton demonstrates the usefulness of twin studies for elucidating the relative influence of nature (heredity) and nurture (environment) upon behavioural traits; Oscar Hertwig concludes from a study of the reproduction of the sea urchin that fertilisation consists of the physical union of the two nuclei contributed by the male and female parents -
1876
J Horner shows that colour-blindness is an inherited disease -
1882
August Weismann notes the distinction between somatic and germ cells; chromosomes observed by Walther Flemming in the nuclei of dividing salamander cells. He uses the word mitosis -
1887
A Weismann postulates the reduction of chromosome number in germ cells -
1889
Johann Miescher isolates DNA from salmon sperm; F Galton publishes Natural Inheritance (biometry)] -
1894
William Bateson's Materials for the Study of Variation emphasizes the importance of discontinuous variations; Karl Pearson publishes his first contribution to the mathematical theory of evolution (he develops the Chi-squared test in 1900) -
1896
EB Wilson publishes The Cell in Development and Heredity -
1899
The First International Congress of Genetics held in London -
1902
WS Sutton and T Boveri (studying sea urchins) independently propose the chromosome theory of heredity [full set of chromosomes are needed for normal development; individual chromosomes carry different hereditary determinants; independent assortment of gene pairs occurs during meiosis] [CPG p.27] -
1905
W Bateson gives the name genetics (means 'to generate' in Greek) to this branch of science, and introduces the words allele (allelomorph), heterozygous (impure line) and homozygous (pure line); W Bateson & RC Punnett work out the principles of multigenic interaction (linkage) and heredity [CPG p.42] -
1909
AE Garrod publishes Inborn Errors of Metabolism [biochemical genetics of albinism, cystinuria, pentosuria and alkaptonuria]; W Johannsen uses the words phenotype, genotype and gene for the first time in his studies with beans CPG p.20]; CC Little produces the first inbred strain of mice (DBA) -
1911
TH Morgan shows the first example of chromosomal linkage in the X chromosome of Drosophila [Nobel prize 1933]; EB Wilson shows that the gene for colour-blindness is on the X chromosome (first gene identified on a chromosome); Davenport founds the first US genetic clinic -
1912
TH Morgan shows that genetic recombination does not take place in males in Drosophila and also discovers the first sex-linked lethal gene [Nobel prize 1933] -
1917
S Wright works out the biochemical basis of coat colour inheritance in animals [CPG p.78] -
1925
CB Bridges proposes the balanced chromosome determination of sex theory [relationship between the autosomes and sex chromosomes] [CPG p.117] -
1927
HJ Muller demonstrates that X-rays are mutagenic in Drosophila [CPG p.149] [receives the Nobel prize in 1946] -
1941
George Wells Beadle & Edward Lawrie Tatum proposes the one gene - one enzyme (polypeptide) concept [CPG p.166] [Tatum receives the Nobel prize in 1958] -
1944
Oswald Theodore Avery et al describe the DNA as the hereditary material [Pneumococcus transformation experiments] [CPG p.173] -
1950
E Chargaff et al demonstrate for DNA that the numbers of adenine and thymine groups are always equal, so are the numbers of guanine and cytosine groups; B McClintock discovers the transposable elements in maize [CPG p.199] [she receives the Nobel prize in 1983] -
1952
Frederick Sanger et al work out the amino acid sequence of insulin [Sanger receives his first Nobel prize in 1958]; AD Hershey & M Chase demonstrate that the genetic material of bacteriophage T2 is DNA and the DNA enters the host but not the protein [AD Hershey receives the Nobel prize in 1969]; ND Zinder & J Lederberg discover phage-mediated transduction in Salmonella [CPG p.221] [Lederberg receives the Nobel prize in 1958] -
1958
MS Meselson & FW Stahl demonstrate that DNA replication is semiconservative (in E.coli) -
1961
MF Lyon and LB Russell independently show that one of the X chromosomes is inactivated in females; SB Weiss & T Nakamoto isolate RNA polymerase; MW Nirenberg starts experiments to unveil the genetic code [gets the Nobel prize in 1968 together with Khorana]; F Jacob & J Monod publish Genetic Regulatory Mechanisms in the Synthesis of Proteins [they receive the Nobel prize in 1965]. Robert Guthrie in New York performs first genetic screening of newborns (for phenylketonuria). -
1967
CB Jacobson & RH Barter use amniocentesis for prenatal diagnosis of a genetic disorder; MC Weiss & H Green works out the autosomal chromosomal assignment of a human gene for the first time [thymidine kinase gene]; HG Khorana et al establishes the genetic code [receives the Nobel prize in 1968 together with MW Nirenberg]; amniocentesis and chromosome analysis are developed -
1970
M Mandel & A Higa develop a method for transformation of bacteria [CaCl2 method]; D Baltimore & HM Temin isolate reverse transcriptase from two oncogenic RNA viruses; R Sager & Z Ramanis publish the first genetic map of non-mendelian genes (chloroplast genes of Chlamydomonas); T Casperson et al do the first chromosome banding. Hamilton Smith and Daniel Nathans successfully used HindIII to manipulated DNA sequences reproducibly -
1975
EM Southern describes the Southern transfer method; F Sanger & AR Coulson develop the DNA sequencing method; R Dulbecco, H Temin, and D Baltimore receive Nobel prizes for their studies on oncogenic viruses -
1980
JW Gordon et al produce the first transgenic mouse; Dr Chakrabarty is awarded the first patent for a genetically engineered (unicellular) organism; GD Snell, J Dausset, and B Benacerraf receive the Nobel prize for their studies on the MHC -
1986
1986 RK Saiki, KB Mullis and five colleagues describe the polymerase chain reaction [Mullis receives the Nobel prize in 1993]; muscular dystrophy gene is identified -
1990
WF Anderson in the USA reports the first gene successful therapy in humans (in ADA deficiency causing SCID); the California Hereditary Disorders Act comes into force; human genome project begins -
2003
Complete sequence of human Y-chromosome is published [Nature 423:825-38]
