- 1856-1863 Gregor Mendel studied peas, found evidence of genetic
segregation.
- 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of the Species.
- 1866 Gregor Mendel published his paper on the principles of heredity.
- 1871 Friedrich Miescher isolated nuclein, now known as DNA.
- 1882-1885 Walther Flemming and E. Strasburger found chromosomes
within nuclei.
- 1902 Archibald Garrod identified alkaptonuria as an example of an
inborn error of metabolism. Walter Sutton and Theodor Boveri proposed the
chromosome theory of heredity.
- 1905 William Bateson coined the term "genetics;" W. Bateson and R. C.
Punnett demonstrated linkage between genes.
- 1909 W. Johannsen introduced the term "gene."
- 1910 Edward M. East clarified the role of sexual reproduction in
evolution. The same year, Thomas Hunt Morgan found the eye-color white, the
first sex-linked gene, in fruit flies.
- 1911 Thomas Hunt Morgan proposed that genetic linkage resulted from
the genes involved being on the same chromosome.
- 1913 Alfred Sturtevant created a genetic-linkage map.
- 1924-1932 John B. S. Haldane published on his mathematical theory of
natural and artificial selection.
- 1927 Showed X-rays can cause mutations.
- 1928 Frederick Griffith discovered "transforming principle," an agent
causing genetic transformation in bacteria.
- 1930 Ronald A. Fischer published a theory of evolution combining
Mendelian inheritance and Darwinian selection. Sewall Wright published a genetic
theory of natural selection and led the way towards the concept of genetic
drift.
- 1931 Harriet Creighton and Barbara McClintock demonstrated genetic
recombination in maize resulting from a physical exchange of homologous
chromosomes. This was repeated in fruit flies by Curt Stern.
- 1941 George Beadle and Edward Tatum: Proposed one gene-one enzyme
hypothesis, later modified to one gene-one polypeptide hypothesis.
- 1944 Avery, MacLeod and McCarty found Griffith's transporting
principle to be DNA.
- 1946 Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum discovered conjugation in
bacteria.
- 1952 Alfred Hershey and Marsha Chase found DNA to be the genetic
material in bacteriophage.
- 1953 James Watson and Francis Crick proposed the double-helix model
for DNA.
- 1957 Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat and B. Singer found DNA to be the genetic
material in tobacco mosaic virus.
- 1958 Arthur Kornberg isolated DNA polymerase I from E. coli.
- 1959 Severo Ochoa discovered the first RNA polymerase; Brenner, Jacob
and Meselson found messenger RNA (mRNA).
- 1965 Robert Holley worked out the first nucleotide sequence of a tRNA
- 1966 Marshall Nirenberg, H. G. Khorana worked out the complete
genetic code.
- 1972 Paul Berg constructed the first molecule of recombinant DNA
in vitro.
- 1973 Herb Boyer and Stanley Cohen were first to use a plasmid for
cloning DNA.
- 1975 Edward M. Southern developed the Southern blot method for
transferring DNA fragments.
- 1977 Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger devised methodology for DNA
sequencing.
- 1986 Kary Mullis et al. devised the polymerase chain reaction
(PCR) method for amplification of selected DNA segments.
- 1989 L.-C. Tsui, John Riordan, and the Francis Collins group:
Identified and cloned the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis in humans.
- 1990 James Watson & multiple scientists started the Human Genome
Project.
Thanks to the Human Genome Project, major DNA findings have been reported at
a fast and furious pace. Many of these result from independent or private
research involving loci known to be associated with diseases, with the hope of
identifying better means of identifying, preventing or treating these
diseases