modern genetic timelin

1859 Discovery: Natural Selection Charles Darwin wrote “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.”

1865 Discovery: Heredity Transmitted in Units Gregor Mendel’s experiments on peas demonstrate that heredity is transmitted in discrete units.

1869 Discovery: DNA Isolated Frederick Miescher isolates DNA from cells for the first time and calls it “nuclein”.

1879 Discovery: Mitosis Described Walter Flemming describes chromosome behavior during animal cell division. He stains chromosomes to observe them clearly and describes the whole process of mitosis in 1882.

1900 Discovery: Rediscovery of Mendel’s work 1902 Botanists DeVries, Correns, and von Tschermak independently rediscover Mendel’s work while doing their own work on the laws of inheritance.

1902 Discovery: Chromosome Theory of Inheritance Walter Sutton observes that the segregation of chromosomes during meiosis matched the segregation pattern of Mendel’s

1909 Discovery: The Word Gene is Coined Wilhelm Johannsen coins the word “gene” to describe the Mendelian unit of heredity.

1911 Discovery: Chromosomes Carry Genes Thomas Hunt Morgan and his students study fruit fly chromosomes. They show that chromosomes carry genes, and also discover genetic linkage.

1941 Discovery: One Gene, One Enzyme Hypothesis George Beadle and Edward Tatum’s experiments on the red bread mold, Neurospora crassa, show that genes act by regulating distinct chemical events.

1944 Discovery: DNA Transforms Cells Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty show that DNA (not proteins) can transform the properties of cells -- thus clarifying the chemical nature of genes.