| ca 400 B.C. | Hippocrates provides the first explanation for heritarytraits (pangenesis - seeds produced by all parts of the body aretransmitted to offspring at conception) | |
| 1761 | Joseph Kolreuter starts first systematic studies of genetic crosseson different strains of tobacco - Blending Theory of Inheritance. | |
| 1859 | Charles Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species" | |
| 1860 | Gregor Mendel starts to follows traits in Pea crosses - ParticulateMechanism of Herititary / Law of Segregation / Law of Independant Assortment. | |
| 1869 | Friedrich Miescher discovers DNA | |
| 1870’s | Walter Flemming observes mitosis in epithelial cells of salamanderlarvae (mitos = Greek for thread) | |
| 1880’s | Weisman & Nageli champion idea of a substance within thecell that is responsible for the transmission of traits from parents tooffspring. | |
| 1883 | Edouard van Beneden observes meiosis in gamete formation. | |
| 1884-5 | Several scientists (including Oscar Hertwig; Eduard Strasburger; Walter Flemming) suggest that chromosomes are the carriers of genetic material. | |
| 1876/7 | Hertwig & Fol observe sperm entering egg during fertilization | |
| 1900 | Hugo de Vries; Carl Correns & Erich von Tschermak rediscover Mendels principles | |
| 1901 | Thomas Montgomery observes chromosomal pairing | |
| 1902-3 | Theodore Boveri & Walter Sutton independantly propose the Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance. | |
| Archibald Garrod notes the first genetic disease | ||
| 1905 | Bateson & Punnett observe non-independant assortment | |
| 1908 | Thomas Hunt Morgan showed relationship between a genetictrait (White eye) and inheritance of a sex chromosome in Drosophila (“Mapped”first gene). | |
| G. H. Hardy & Wilheim Weinberg formulatre the Hardy-Weinberg Principle | ||
| 1909 | Janssens proposes that crossing-over involves a physical exchangeof material between homologous chromosomes. | |
| 1913 | Alfred Sturtevant used frequency of crossing-over to produce the first genetic map | Sturtevant A.H. J. Experimental Zool. 14:43-59 (1914 |
| Morgan & Bridges describe gene dosage effects | Morgan T.H.& Bridges C.B. J. Experimental Zool. 15:429-466(1913)] | |
| 1919 | Bridges observes two genes effecting a single trait | Bridges C.B.J. Experimental Zool. 28:337-384 (1919)] |
| 1927 | Muller shows X-rays to be the first environmental agent knownto cause mutations | |
| 1928 | Griffith observed the transfer of genetic material (transformation)from one bacterium to another | |
| 1931 | Creighton & McClintock correlate crossing-over with the productionof new arrangements of alleles | Creighton H.B. & McClintock B. P.N.A.S.(USA) 17:492-497 (1931) |
| 1941 | Beadle & Tatum show that a gene codes for a single protein. | |
| 1944 | Avery | MacLeod & McCarty show that DNA is the genetic material. |
| Early 1950’s | Chargaff & Davidson show that the amounts of A = Tand G = C in DNA | Chargraff E. & Davidson J.N. Eds. TheNucleic acids: Chemistry and Biology pp307-368 Academic PressNew York |
| 1951 | McClintock identifies transposons in maize. | |
| 1952 | Hershey & Chase show that bacteriophage T2 injects DNA intothe bacterial cytoplasm rather than protein. | |
| 1953 | Watson & Crick propose the double helical structure for DNAbased on model building and Rosalind Franklins X-ray studies of DNA | |
| 1956 | Gierer & Schramm show that tobacco mosaic virus uses RNA ratherthan DNA as its genetic material | |
| 1958 | Messelson & Stahl demonstrate that DNA replicates semi-conservatively. | |
| Kornberg demonstrates in vitro DNA synthesis | Lehman et al.J. Biol. Chem. 233:163-170 (1958) | |
| 1961 | The triplet nature of the genetic code is discovered and decipheredindependently by Nirenberg & Ochoa. | Nirenberg & Matthei P.N.A.S.(USA) 47:1588-1602 (1961) |
| Messenger RNA is discovered by Sidney Brenner; Francois Jacob & Matthew Meselson | ||
| Jacob & Monad propose the operon model for gene regulation | Pardeeet al. J. Mol. Biol. 1:165 (1959)] | |
| Late 1960’s | Britten & Kohne perform renaturation studies revealingrepititive DNA | |
| 1962 | Francois Chapeville test adapter hypothesis of tRNA function. | |
| 1970 | Temin & Baltimore report the discovery of Reverse Transcriptasein retroviruses. | |
| 1972 | First cloning experiment | Jackson D.A. et al. P.N.A.S. (USA) 69:2904-2909 (1972); Lobban P.E. & Kaiser A.D. J. Molec. Biol.78:453-471 (1973) |
| 1974 | Arthur Kornberg proposes model of nucleosomal structure. Markus Noll tests the idea and sees 200 bp repeat units of DNA. | |
| 1976 | Retroviral oncogenes are identified as the causitive agents oftransformation. | |
| Weintraub & Groudine measure chromatin changes during transcription | WeintraubH. & Groudine M. Science 193:848-856 (1976) | |
| 1977 | DNA sequencing becomes possible. | Maxam A.M & Gilbert W. P.N.A.S. (USA) 74:560-564 (1977); Sanger F. et al. P.N.A.S. (USA) 74:5463-5467 (1977); Sanger F. Nobel Lecture: Determination of Nucleotide sequences in DNA Bioscience Reports 1:3-18 (1980) |
| Sequence of first "organis" determined - phage fX174 - by Fred Sanger | ||
| 1978 | Interupted genes are discovered and splicing of their transcripts inferred by Leder and colleagues | |
| 1979 | Cellular oncogenes are discovered by transfection. | |
| 1981 | Catylytic activity of RNA is discovered. | |
| Transgenic mice and flies are obtained by introducing new DNA intothe germline. | ||
| 1991 | First successful gene therapy performed on two girls with severe combined immunodeficiency by W. French Anderson and others. | |
| 1992 | First entire chromasome is sequenced | Oliver S.G. et al. Nature357:38-46(1992) |
| 1994 | Prion hypothesis | Wickner |
| 1995 | First complete genome sequence of free-living organism | FleischmannR.D. et al. Science 269:496-512 (1995) |
| 1996 | Completion of the sequence of the first eukaryotic organism. | |
| 1997 | Cloning of mature mammalian cells is achieved. | |