HISTORY OF GENETICS

Why Study History? MID 1800’s DISCOVERIES

- to learn from past
- to avoid repeating mistakes 3 Major Events that led to the
- to improve from situations Development of Modern Genetics:

“Those who cannot remember the past are 1. The Origin of Species
condemned to repeat it” – Santayana, 1905
 1859
HISTORY Charles Darwin
- published The Origin of Species
People have known about inheritance for a - describes the theory of evolution by
long time natural selection
 Children resemble their parents - this theory requires heredity to work
 Domestication of animals and plants,
selective breeding for good characteristics Natural Selection
 Sumerian horse breeding records - evolution happens by natural selection
 Egyptian data palm breeding - individuals in a species show variation in
 Bible and hemophilia (X-linked that lacks physical characteristics
blood clotting factors) - individuals with characteristics best suited to
their environment are more likely to survive,
Old Ideas find food, avoid predators, and resist disease
- incorrect ideas had to be generated and
overcome before modern genetics could arise Peppered moth: example of natural selection

 All life comes from other life. Living

organisms are not spontaneously
generated from non-living material. (Big
exception: origin of life) -> True

Biogenesis: life comes from life (Louis

Pasteur) Survival of the Fittest
Abiogenesis: spontaneous generation - coined by Herbert Spencer

 Species concept: offspring arise only when Types of Evolution

two members of the same species mate.
Monstrous hybrids don’t exist. -> True 1. Convergent Evolution
- takes place when species of different ancestry
 Organisms develop by expressing begin to share analogous traits because of a
information carried in their hereditary shared environment or other selection pressure
material. As opposed to “preformation”, - bats, birds, butterflies
the idea that in each sperm (or egg) is a - sharks, cetaceans (dolphins), ichthyosaurs
tiny, fully-formed human that merely
grows in size. -> True then False analogous traits: structures that differ but
have the same function
 The environment can’t alter the hereditary
material in a directed fashion. There is no 2. Divergent Evolution
“inheritance of acquired characteristics”. - in which two species gradually become
Mutations are random events. -> True increasingly different
- often occurs when closely related species
Phenotypic can be altered but Genotypic diversify to new habitats
cannot be altered - finches on the Galapagos Island

 Male and female parents contribute 3. Parallel Evolution

equally to the offspring -> True based on - occurs when 2 independent but similar species
Gregor Mendel’s study evolve in the same direction and thus
independently acquire similar characteristics
 Ancient Greek Idea: - flying frog from tree frogs
- male plants a “seed” in the female
“garden” -> True

 Alleged New Guinea belief:

- sex is not related to reproduction -> F
 - rediscovered Mendel’s work

 1902
Archibald Garrod
- discovered alkaptonuria

4. Coevolution Evolution
alkaptonuria:
- occurs when closely interacting species exert
- a human disease with genetic basis
selective pressures on each other, so that they
- inborn error in metabolism
evolve together in a kind of conversation of
- disorder of enzyme deficiency
adaptations
- problem in HGD Gene (homogentisate 1,2-
- bees and flowers
dioxygenase)

gene: codes enzymes

enzymes: codes proteins

 1904
Gregory Bateson
- discovered linkage between genes
(epistasis)
- coined the word “genetics”
- Non-Mendelian principle

 1910
Reginald Punnett and Bateson
2. Experiments in Plant Hybridization - discovered the science of genetic linkage
- coined the term “epistasis”
 1886
Johann Gregor Mendel epistasis: describe the interaction between two
- Austrian monk and scientist different traits
- Father of Genetics
- used pea plants to conduct experiments
- published Experiments in Plant
Hybridization
- lays out the basic theory of genetics
- widely ignored until 1900
MCR1 gene: independent with brown hair gene
3. Isolation of Nucleic Acid
MCR1 variant: dependent with brown hair gene
 1869
 1910
Friedrich Miescher
Thomas Hunt Morgan
- isolated “nucleic acid” from pus cells (from
- proved that genes are located on the
bandage)
chromosomes
- called it nuclein (substance is coming from
- used Drosophila (fruit fly)
the nucleus of the pus cell)
 1918
Richard Altmann
Ronald Aylmer Fisher
- student of Friedrich Miescher
- began the study of quantitative genetics by
- coined the word “nuclei acid”
partitioning phenotypic variance into a genetic
- due to acidic characteristic
and an environmental component
 1871
 1926
Ernst Haeckel
Hermann J. Muller
- proved that the genetic material is indeed
- shows that X-rays induce mutations
located in the nucleus
- used fruit fly
- only applicable to eukaryotic cell
- prokaryotics have: nucleoid

MAJOR EVENTS IN 20TH CENTURY

 1900
Robert Correns
Hugo de Vries
Erich von Tschermak
 1944 Francis Crick
Oswald Avery Maurice Wilkins
Colin MacLeod - determine the structure of the DNA
Maclyn McCarty molecule, which leads directly to knowledge of
- shows that DNA can transform bacteria, how it replicates
demonstrating that DNA is the hereditary - in a bi-directional fashion
material - won the Nobel Prize
How the trinity discovered that DNA is the  1966
Hereditary Material: Marshall Nirenberg
- solves the genetic code, showing that 3 DNA
1. They removed the lipids and carbohydrates bases code for one amino acid
from a solution of heat-killed S cells. Proteins, - 64 codons all in all
RNA and DNA remain. - 3 codes cannot produce a specific amino
acids (stop codons: UGA, UAG, UUA)
2. Subject the solution to treatments of
enzymes to destroy either the proteins, RNA, or  1970
DNA. David Baltimore
Howard Temin
3. Add a small portion of each sample to a - independent and simultaneous discovery of
culture containing R cells. Observe whether reverse transcriptase in retroviruses (then
transformation has occurred by testing for the RNA tumor viruses)
presence of virulent S cells. - revolutionized molecular biology and laid the
foundations for retrovirology and cancer
S cells: smooth cells (virulent/pathogenic cells) biology
R cells: rough cells (avirulent)
Reverse Transcriptase
- an enzyme found in retroviruses, was
discovered and was used in cloning genes
- makes DNA from an mRNA template (opposite
of transcription which is from DNA to mRNA)

retrovirus
- doesn’t have DNA
- like corona virus
- uses reverse transcriptase
︎
 1972
Stanley Cohen
Herbert Boyer
- combine DNA from two different species in
vitro, then transform it into bacterial cells
- first DNA cloning
 1952
Rosalind Franklin Two types of DNA
- used a technique called X-ray  bacterial DNA
crystallography  frog DNA
- first one to see DNA
- died because of ovarian cancer Plasmid: extrachromosomal DNA from a
prokaryotic cell
crystallography: revealed the helical shape
of the DNA molecule How the duo did it?
1. Cohen and Boyer removed a plasmid from a
bacterium.
2. The plasmid was then treated with a
restriction enzyme (EcoRI) cutting the plasmid,
leaving sticky ends.
[Link] frog DNA was mixed with the plasmid.
The frog DNA and the plasmid had
complementary sticky ends that fit together.
4. Then this recombinant DNA molecule was
used as a vector to infect a bacterial cell.
(Photo 51)
 1977
 1953
Frederick Sanger
James Watson
 - introduced the process of sequencing the
genome (set of genes of an organism) of a
bacteriophage
- later, scientists have done it in other
organisms as well

bacteriophage: virus that infects bacteria

 1983
Kary Mullis
- invented the process called Polymerase
Chain Reaction (PCR)

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

- a segment of the DNA is amplified until
millions of copies are produced in just a short
period of time
- invitro DNA replication
- uses polymerase and mimics the replication

 1990
Human Genome Project
- to sequence and map the genome
(collections of all the genes) of man

 1996
Ian Wilmut
Keith Campbell
- they have successfully cloned Dolly the
Sheep
- was the first mammal to be cloned from an
adult cell

Dolly is older than her age :<

 As you go older, the telomere you

have will become shorter.
 Dolly got 6 kids
 Dolly was killed :<

 2003
- sequence of the entire human genome is
announced

“A long healthy life is no accident. It

begins with good genes, but it also
depends on good habits.”

- Dan Buettner