Key milestones in the development of genetics

Year

Event

1865

- Mendel (Gregor (Johann) Mendel) published the paper "Experiments on Plant Hybrids", in which he formulated the principles of hybridological analysis and the Basic Laws of the transmission of discrete hereditary factors across generations. The work went unrecognized by his contemporaries.

1869

- Miescher (Frederick Miescher) first isolated DNA.

1882

- Flemming (Walter Flemming) described Mitosis and Meiosis in animals, as well as chromosome behavior during these processes.

1889

- Boveri (Theodor Boveri) demonstrated The Role of the Cell Nucleus in heredity.

1900

- Correns, von Tschermak, and de Vries (Carl Correns, Erich von Tschermak, Hugo de Vries) independently rediscovered Mendelian principles of inheritance.

1902

- Sutton (Walter Sutton) proposed the chromosome theory of heredity, based on the parallel between the transmission of Mendelian hereditary factors and Chromosomes during meiosis.

1903

- de Vries formulated the first mutation theory.

1906

- Bateson (William Bateson) proposed the name "genetics" for the science of heredity mechanisms.

1908

- Hardy and Weinberg (Godfrey Hardy, Wilhelm Weinberg) independently formulated the fundamental principle of Population Genetics.

1909

- Johannsen (Wilhelm Johannsen) coined the term "Gene" and introduced the terms "genotype" and "phenotype".

1911

- Morgan (Thomas Hunt Morgan) demonstrated that genes are located on chromosomes and form linkage groups; in the 1920s, Morgan and his coworkers Bridges, Sturtevant, and Muller (Calvin Bridges, Alfred Sturtevant, Hermann Muller) finally established the chromosome theory of heredity.

1927

- Muller artificially induced Mutations in Drosophila using X-rays.

1931

- Creighton and McClintock (Harriet Creighton, Barbara McClintock) first observed maize chromosome recombination under a Microscope.

1935

- Nikolai Timoféeff-Ressovsky, Zimmer (Karl Zimmer), and Delbrück (Max Delbruck), based on the dependence of mutation frequency on radiation dose, estimated the size of the gene, establishing that a gene is a large organic molecule.

1930s

- Wright, Fisher, and Haldane (Sewal Wright, Ronald Fisher, John Haldane) founded population genetics and established it as the theoretical foundation of evolutionary biology.

1941

- Beadle and Tatum (George Beadle, Edward Tatum), investigating Neurospora crassa, established METABOLISM/18.html">The Influence of heredity on biochemical processes and formulated the "one gene - one enzyme" principle.

1944

- Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty (Oswald Avery, Colin McLeod, Maclyn McCarty) first performed Bacterial Transformation and proved the role of DNA as the genetic material.

1944

- McClintock discovered the existence of mobile elements in the maize genome.

1950

- Chargaff (Erwin Chargaff) established that The amount of adenine in DNA equals the amount of thymine, and the amount of guanine equals the amount of cytosine (Chargaff's rules).

1952

- Hershey and Chase (Alfred Hershey, Martha Chase) showed that only bacteriophage DNA serves as the infectious agent.

1953

- Franklin and Wilkins (Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins) obtained key X-Ray Diffraction patterns of DNA fibers, indicating a regular helical Structure OF THE molecule.

1953

- Watson and Crick (James Watson, Francis Crick), based on X-ray data and Chargaff's rules, developed a model of Introduction/20.html">DNA Structure AND formulated THE PRINCIPLE OF complementarity.

1955

- Kornberg (Arthur Kornberg) isolated the first DNA polymerase and studied its properties.

1957

- Crick formulated the "Central dogma of molecular biology".

1958

- Meselson and Stahl (Matthew Meselson, Franklin Stahl) demonstrated the semi-conservative mechanism of DNA Replication.

1961

- Brenner, Jacob (Sydney Brenner, Franęois Jacob), and Meselson established the role of mRNA as an intermediate carrier of information during protein Gene Expression.

1961

- Jacob and Monod (Jacques Monod) described the first Transcription regulation system — in the lactose Operon of E. coli.

1966

- Nirenberg and Khorana (Marshall Nirenberg, Gobind Khorana) completed the deciphering of The Genetic Code.

1970

- Smith (Hamilton Smith) discovered the first restriction endonuclease.

1970

- Temin and Baltimore (Howard Temin, David Baltimore) discovered Reverse Transcriptase.

1972

- Berg (Paul Berg) created the first recombinant DNA.

1975

- Maxam and Gilbert (Allan Maxam, Walter Gilbert) and Sanger (Frederick Sanger) developed two Methods for DNA Sequencing.

1976

- The first Genetic Engineering company, Genentech, was founded.

1977

- Sanger et al. determined The sequence of the first genome — bacteriophage φX174.

1977

- The laboratories of Roberts and Sharp (Richard Roberts, Phillip Sharp) established the mosaic structure (presence of introns) of eukaryotic genes.

1982

- GenBank, the first publicly accessible DNA sequence database, was established.

1984

- Jeffreys (Alec Jeffreys) developed a molecular method for individual identification — DNA fingerprinting.

1985

- Mullis (Kary Mullis) developed a revolutionary Molecular Genetic Method — the Polymerase Chain Reaction.

1990

- Work on sequencing The Human Genome was initiated.

1995

- The sequences of the first Prokaryotic Genomes — the Bacteria Hemophilus influenzae and Mycoplasma genitalium — were determined.

1996

- The sequence of the first eukaryotic genome — the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae — was determined.

2001

- The human genome sequence was published.

2007

- Within two months, the sequences of the first two individual genomes — those of James Watson and J. Craig Venter — were determined.