Modern Evolution of Genetics Timeline
Encyclopedia
This is a timeline of events concerning the Modern Evolution of Genetics
, from Gregor Mendel
to present day.
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
, from Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance...
to present day.
1800s
- 1868 - Austrian monk Gregor MendelGregor MendelGregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance...
studied the inheritance of traitsTrait (biology)A trait is a distinct variant of a phenotypic character of an organism that may be inherited, environmentally determined or be a combination of the two...
between generations based on experiments involving garden pea plants. He deduced that there is a certain essence that is passed on between generations from both parents. Mendel established the basic principles of inheritanceMendelian inheritanceMendelian inheritance is a scientific description of how hereditary characteristics are passed from parent organisms to their offspring; it underlies much of genetics...
, namely, the principles of dominance, independent assortment, and segregation.
- 1871 - J. F. MiescherFriedrich MiescherJohannes Friedrich Miescher was a Swiss physician and biologist. He was the first researcher to isolate and identify nucleic acid.-Biography:...
isolated cell nuclei. Miescher separated the nucleic cells from bandages and then treated them with pepsinPepsinPepsin is an enzyme whose precursor form is released by the chief cells in the stomach and that degrades food proteins into peptides. It was discovered in 1836 by Theodor Schwann who also coined its name from the Greek word pepsis, meaning digestion...
(which breaks down proteins). From this, he recovered an acidic substance which he called “nuclein.”
- 1889 - Richard AltmannRichard AltmannRichard Altmann was a German pathologist and histologist from Deutsch Eylau in the Province of Prussia. He studied medicine in Greifswald, Königsberg, Marburg, and Giessen, and earned his doctorate at the University of Giessen in 1877...
purified protein free DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
. However, the nucleic acidNucleic acidNucleic acids are biological molecules essential for life, and include DNA and RNA . Together with proteins, nucleic acids make up the most important macromolecules; each is found in abundance in all living things, where they function in encoding, transmitting and expressing genetic information...
was not as pure as he had assumed. It was determined later to contain a large amount of protein.
1900s
- 1902 - Archibald GarrodArchibald GarrodSir Archibald Edward Garrod KCMG, FRS was an English physician who pioneered the field of inborn errors of metabolism.- Education and Personal Life :...
discovered inborn errors of metabolism. An explanation for epistasis is an important manifestation of Garrod’s research, albeit indirectly. When Garrod studied alkaptonuria, a disorder that makes urine quickly turn black due to the presence of gentesate, he noticed that it was prevalent among populations whose parents were closely related.
- 1902 - Walter Sutton and Theodor Boveri established chromosome theory. Boveri was studying sea urchins and he found that all the chromosomes in the sea urchins had to be present for proper embryonic development to take place. Sutton's work with grasshoppers showed that chromosomes occur in matched pairs of maternal and paternal chromosomes which separate during meiosis and could "may the physical basis of the Mendelian law of heredity."
- 1908 - G.H. Hardy and Wilhelm WeinbergWilhelm WeinbergDr Wilhelm Weinberg was a German half-Jewish physician and obstetrician-gynecologist, practicing in Stuttgart, who in a 1908 paper Dr Wilhelm Weinberg (Stuttgart, December 25, 1862 – Tübingen, November 27, 1937) was a German half-Jewish physician and obstetrician-gynecologist, practicing in...
proposed a theorem to describe the frequency of alleles of a gene for a given population. The Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium is a tool used for genetic analysis, which can determine how closely related two individuals are.
1910s
- 1910 - Thomas MorganThomas Hunt MorganThomas Hunt Morgan was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries relating the role the chromosome plays in heredity.Morgan received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in zoology...
determined the nature of sex-linked traits by studying Drosophila melanogasterDrosophila melanogasterDrosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...
. He determined that the white-eyed mutant was sex-linked based on Mendelian's principles of segregation and independent assortment. More significantly, Morgan and his students affirmed the Chromosome Theory of Heredity.
- 1911 - Alfred SturtevantAlfred SturtevantAlfred Henry Sturtevant was an American geneticist. Sturtevant constructed the first genetic map of a chromosome in 1913. Throughout his career he worked on the organism Drosophila melanogaster with Thomas Hunt Morgan...
, one of Morgan's students, invented the procedure of linkage mapping which is based on the frequency of recombination. A few years later, he constructed the world's first chromosome map.
1920s
- 1923 - Frederick GriffithFrederick GriffithFrederick Griffith was a British bacteriologist whose focus was the epidemiology and pathology of bacterial pneumonia. In January 1928 he reported what is now known as Griffith's Experiment, the first widely accepted demonstrations of bacterial transformation, whereby a bacterium distinctly...
studied bacterial transformation and observed that DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
carries genes responsible for pathogenicityPathogenicityPathogenicity is the ability of a pathogen to produce an infectious disease in an organism.It is often used interchangeably with the term "virulence", although virulence is used more specifically to describe the relative degree of damage done by a pathogen, or the degree of pathogenicity caused by...
.
1930s
- 1933 - Thomas MorganThomas Hunt MorganThomas Hunt Morgan was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries relating the role the chromosome plays in heredity.Morgan received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in zoology...
received the Nobel prizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
for linkage mapping. His work elucidated the role played by the chromosome in heredityHeredityHeredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve...
.
1940s
- 1941 - George Beadle and Edward Tatum demonstrated that genes encode for enzymes, which induce mutations in neurosporaNeurosporaNeurospora is a genus of Ascomycete fungi. The genus name, meaning "nerve spore" refers to the characteristic striations on the spores that resemble axons....
.
- 1944 - Oswald AveryOswald AveryOswald Theodore Avery ForMemRS was a Canadian-born American physician and medical researcher. The major part of his career was spent at the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City...
, Colin MacLeodColin MacLeodColin Munro MacLeod was a Canadian-American geneticist.- Biography :Born in Port Hastings, Nova Scotia, Canada MacLeod entered McGill University at the age of 16 , and completed his medical studies by age 23.In his early years as a research scientist, MacLeod, together with Oswald Avery and...
and Maclyn McCartyMaclyn McCartyMaclyn McCarty was an American geneticist.Maclyn McCarty, who devoted his life as a physician-scientist to studying infectious disease organisms, was best known for his part in the monumental discovery that DNA, rather than protein, constituted the chemical nature of a gene...
refined the experiment done by Griffith in 1923. Avery, MacLeod and McCarthy’s experiment on Bacterial transformation and proved that DNA carries genetic information responsible for pathogenicityPathogenicityPathogenicity is the ability of a pathogen to produce an infectious disease in an organism.It is often used interchangeably with the term "virulence", although virulence is used more specifically to describe the relative degree of damage done by a pathogen, or the degree of pathogenicity caused by...
with the use of RibonucleaseRibonucleaseRibonuclease is a type of nuclease that catalyzes the degradation of RNA into smaller components. Ribonucleases can be divided into endoribonucleases and exoribonucleases, and comprise several sub-classes within the EC 2.7 and 3.1 classes of enzymes.-Function:All organisms studied contain...
, ProteaseProteaseA protease is any enzyme that conducts proteolysis, that is, begins protein catabolism by hydrolysis of the peptide bonds that link amino acids together in the polypeptide chain forming the protein....
, as well as DeoxyribonucleaseDeoxyribonucleaseA deoxyribonuclease is any enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolytic cleavage of phosphodiester linkages in the DNA backbone. Thus, deoxyribonucleases are one type of nuclease...
.
1950s
- 1950 - Erwin ChargaffErwin ChargaffErwin Chargaff was an American biochemist who emigrated to the United States during the Nazi era. Through careful experimentation, Chargaff discovered two rules that helped lead to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA...
determined the pairing method of Nitrogenous bases. Chargaff and his team studied the DNA from multiple organisms and found three things (also known as Chargaff's rulesChargaff's rulesChargaff's rules state that DNA from any cell of all organisms should have a 1:1 ratio of pyrimidine and purine bases and, more specifically, that the amount of guanine is equal to cytosine and the amount of adenine is equal to thymine. This pattern is found in both strands of the DNA...
). First, the concentration of the Pyrimidines (thymineThymineThymine is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid of DNA that are represented by the letters G–C–A–T. The others are adenine, guanine, and cytosine. Thymine is also known as 5-methyluracil, a pyrimidine nucleobase. As the name suggests, thymine may be derived by methylation of uracil at...
and adenineAdenineAdenine is a nucleobase with a variety of roles in biochemistry including cellular respiration, in the form of both the energy-rich adenosine triphosphate and the cofactors nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide , and protein synthesis, as a chemical component of DNA...
) is always found in the same amount as one another. Second, the concentration of purines (cytosineCytosineCytosine is one of the four main bases found in DNA and RNA, along with adenine, guanine, and thymine . It is a pyrimidine derivative, with a heterocyclic aromatic ring and two substituents attached . The nucleoside of cytosine is cytidine...
and guanineGuanineGuanine is one of the four main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, the others being adenine, cytosine, and thymine . In DNA, guanine is paired with cytosine. With the formula C5H5N5O, guanine is a derivative of purine, consisting of a fused pyrimidine-imidazole ring system with...
) is always the same. Last, Chargaff and his team found the proportion of pyrimidines and purines to be the same.
- 1953 - James WatsonJames D. WatsonJames Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
and Francis CrickFrancis CrickFrancis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
with the contributions of Rosalind FranklinRosalind FranklinRosalind Elsie Franklin was a British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made critical contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite...
and Maurice WilkinsMaurice WilkinsMaurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS was a New Zealand-born English physicist and molecular biologist, and Nobel Laureate whose research contributed to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence, isotope separation, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction, and to the development of radar...
discovered the double helix structure of DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
. By studying the data from x-ray crystallography work done by Franklin, Watson and Crick were able to predict the double helix structure of the DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
molecule. They also used the data provided by ChargaffErwin ChargaffErwin Chargaff was an American biochemist who emigrated to the United States during the Nazi era. Through careful experimentation, Chargaff discovered two rules that helped lead to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA...
, which demonstrated the ratios of purines and pyramidines.
- 1955 - Alexander R. ToddAlexander R. Todd, Baron ToddAlexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd, OM, PRS FRSE was a Scottish biochemist whose research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes gained him the 1957 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.Todd was born near Glasgow, attended Allan Glen's School and graduated from...
determined the chemical makeup of nitrogenous bases. Todd also successfully synthesized Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)Adenosine triphosphateAdenosine-5'-triphosphate is a multifunctional nucleoside triphosphate used in cells as a coenzyme. It is often called the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer. ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism...
and Favin Adenine Dinucleotide (FAD)FADIn biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...
. He was awarded the Nobel prizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in Chemistry in 1957 for his contributions in the scientific knowledge of nucleotides and nucleotide co-enzymes.
- 1955 - Joe Hin TjioJoe Hin TjioJoe Hin Tjio , was a cytogeneticist renowned as the first person to recognize the normal number of human chromosomes. This epochal event occurred on December 22, 1955 at the Institute of Genetics of the University of Lund in Sweden, where Tjio was a visiting scientist.-Early life:Tjio was born to...
determined the number of chromosomes in humans to be of 46. Tjio was attempting to refine an established technique to separate chromosomes onto glass slides by conducting a study of human embryonic lung tissue, when he saw that there were 46 chromosomes rather than 48. This revolutionized the world of cytogeneticsCytogeneticsCytogenetics is a branch of genetics that is concerned with the study of the structure and function of the cell, especially the chromosomes. It includes routine analysis of G-Banded chromosomes, other cytogenetic banding techniques, as well as molecular cytogenetics such as fluorescent in situ...
.
- 1957 - Arthur KornbergArthur KornbergArthur Kornberg was an American biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1959 for his discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid " together with Dr. Severo Ochoa of New York University...
with Severo OchoaSevero OchoaSevero Ochoa de Albornoz was a Spanish-American doctor and biochemist, and joint winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Arthur Kornberg.-Early life:...
synthesized DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
in a test tube after discovering the means by which DNA is duplicated . DNA polymerase 1DNA polymerase IDNA Polymerase I is an enzyme that participates in the process of DNA replication in prokaryotes. It is composed of 928 amino acids, and is an example of a processive enzyme - it can sequentially catalyze multiple polymerisations. Discovered by Arthur Kornberg in 1956, it was the first known...
established requirements for in vitro synthesis of DNA. Kornberg and Ochoa were awarded the Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in 1959 for this work.
- 1957/1958 - Robert W. HolleyRobert W. HolleyRobert William Holley was an American biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 for describing the structure of alanine transfer RNA, linking DNA and protein synthesis.Holley was born in Urbana, Illinois, and graduated from Urbana High School in 1938...
, Marshall NirenbergMarshall Warren NirenbergMarshall Warren Nirenberg was an American biochemist and geneticist of Jewish origin. He shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 with Har Gobind Khorana and Robert W. Holley for "breaking the genetic code" and describing how it operates in protein synthesis...
, Har Gobind Khorana proposed the nucleotide sequence of the tRNA molecule. Francis CrickFrancis CrickFrancis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
had proposed the requirement of some kind of adapter molecule and it was soon identified by Holey, Nirenberg and Khorana. These scientists help explain the link between an messenger RNA nucleotide sequence and a polypeptide sequence. In the experiment, they purified tRNAsTransfer RNATransfer RNA is an adaptor molecule composed of RNA, typically 73 to 93 nucleotides in length, that is used in biology to bridge the three-letter genetic code in messenger RNA with the twenty-letter code of amino acids in proteins. The role of tRNA as an adaptor is best understood by...
from yeast cells and were awarded the Nobel prizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in 1968.
1960s
- 1961 - Francis CrickFrancis CrickFrancis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
and Sydney BrennerSydney BrennerSydney Brenner, CH FRS is a South African biologist and a 2002 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate, shared with H...
discovered frame shift mutationsFrameshift mutationA frameshift mutation is a genetic mutation caused by indels of a number of nucleotides that is not evenly divisible by three from a DNA sequence...
. In the experiment, proflavin-induced mutations of the T4 bacteriophage gene (rIIB) were isolated. Proflavin causes mutations by inserting itself between DNA bases, typically resulting in insertion or deletion of a single base pair. The mutants could not produce functional rIIB protein.
- 1961 - Sydney BrennerSydney BrennerSydney Brenner, CH FRS is a South African biologist and a 2002 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate, shared with H...
, Francois JacobFrançois JacobFrançois Jacob is a French biologist who, together with Jacques Monod, originated the idea that control of enzyme levels in all cells occurs through feedback on transcription. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Jacques Monod and André Lwoff.-Childhood and education:François Jacob is...
and Matthew MeselsonMatthew MeselsonMatthew Stanley Meselson is an American geneticist and molecular biologist whose research was important in showing how DNA replicates, recombines and is repaired in cells. In his mature years, he has been an active chemical and biological weapons activist and consultant...
identified the function of messenger RNA.
- 1966 - Marshall W. Nirenberg, Philip LederPhilip LederPhilip Leder is an American geneticist. He was born in Washington, D.C. and studied at Harvard University, graduating in 1956. In 1960, he graduated from Harvard Medical School....
, Har Gobind Khorana cracked the genetic code by using RNA homopolymer and heteropolymer experiments, through which they figured out which triplets of RNARNARibonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....
were translated into what amino acids in yeast cells.
1970s
- 1970 - Hamilton O. SmithHamilton O. SmithHamilton Othanel Smith is an American microbiologist and Nobel laureate.Smith was born on August 23, 1931, and graduated from University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but in 1950 transferred to the University of California,...
and Daniel NathansDaniel NathansDaniel Nathans was an American microbiologist.He was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the last of nine children born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. During the Great Depression his father lost his small business and was unemployed for a long period of time...
purified the first restriction enzyme (EcoRIEcoRIEcoRI is an endonuclease enzyme isolated from strains of E. coli, and is part of the restriction modification system.In molecular biology it is used as a restriction enzyme. It creates sticky ends with 5' end overhangs...
). This enzyme is produced by the E-coli strain RY13 and its purpose is to protect the bacteria’s genetic material from invasion by foreign DNA.
- 1972 - Stanley Norman CohenStanley Norman CohenStanley Norman Cohen is an American geneticist.Cohen is a graduate of Rutgers University, and received his doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1960...
and Herbert BoyerHerbert BoyerHerbert W. Boyer is a recipient of the 1990 National Medal of Science, co-recipient of the 1996 Lemelson-MIT Prize, and a co-founder of Genentech. He served as Vice President of Genentech from 1976 through his retirement in 1991....
at UCSF and Stanford University constructed Recombinant DNARecombinant DNARecombinant DNA molecules are DNA sequences that result from the use of laboratory methods to bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating sequences that would not otherwise be found in biological organisms...
which can be formed by using restriction Endonuclease to cleave the DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
and DNA ligaseDNA ligaseIn molecular biology, DNA ligase is a specific type of enzyme, a ligase, that repairs single-stranded discontinuities in double stranded DNA molecules, in simple words strands that have double-strand break . Purified DNA ligase is used in gene cloning to join DNA molecules together...
to reattach the “sticky ends” into a bacterial plasmidPlasmidIn microbiology and genetics, a plasmid is a DNA molecule that is separate from, and can replicate independently of, the chromosomal DNA. They are double-stranded and, in many cases, circular...
.
- 1976 - YeastYeastYeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species currently described estimated to be only 1% of all fungal species. Most reproduce asexually by mitosis, and many do so by an asymmetric division process called budding...
genes expressed in E. coli for the first time.
- 1976 - DNA sequencingDNA sequencingDNA sequencing includes several methods and technologies that are used for determining the order of the nucleotide bases—adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine—in a molecule of DNA....
methodology is devised. Frederick SangerFrederick SangerFrederick Sanger, OM, CH, CBE, FRS is an English biochemist and a two-time Nobel laureate in chemistry, the only person to have been so. In 1958 he was awarded a Nobel prize in chemistry "for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin"...
and Charles CoulsonCharles CoulsonCharles Alfred Coulson FRS was an applied mathematician, theoretical chemist and religious author.His major scientific work was as a pioneer of the application of the quantum theory of valency to problems of molecular structure, dynamics and reactivity...
described a method for determining the sequence of DNA using a four lane polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE)Page-Position or occupation:* Page , a traditionally young male servant* Page * Page of Honour, a ceremonial position in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom* A participant in any of the following programs:...
. By interrupting DNA synthesis by exposure to a small concentration of a Dideoxynucleoside Triphosphate (DdNTP), a different banding pattern can be generated for each different base and a different distance can be identified for each base pair on the gel. This technique is called the Sanger Coulson Technique.
1980s
- 1980 - Paul BergPaul BergPaul Berg is an American biochemist and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980, along with Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger. The award recognized their contributions to basic research involving nucleic acids...
, Walter GilbertWalter GilbertWalter Gilbert is an American physicist, biochemist, molecular biology pioneer, and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Gilbert was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 21, 1932...
and Frederick SangerFrederick SangerFrederick Sanger, OM, CH, CBE, FRS is an English biochemist and a two-time Nobel laureate in chemistry, the only person to have been so. In 1958 he was awarded a Nobel prize in chemistry "for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin"...
developed methods of mapping the structure of DNA. In 1972, recombinant DNA molecules were produced in Paul Berg’s Stanford University laboratory. Berg was awarded the 1980 Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in Chemistry for constructing recombinant DNA molecules that contained phage lambda genes inserted into the small circular DNA mol.
- 1980 - Stanley Norman CohenStanley Norman CohenStanley Norman Cohen is an American geneticist.Cohen is a graduate of Rutgers University, and received his doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1960...
and Herbert BoyerHerbert BoyerHerbert W. Boyer is a recipient of the 1990 National Medal of Science, co-recipient of the 1996 Lemelson-MIT Prize, and a co-founder of Genentech. He served as Vice President of Genentech from 1976 through his retirement in 1991....
received first U.S. patent for gene cloning, by proving the successful outcome of cloning a PlasmidPlasmidIn microbiology and genetics, a plasmid is a DNA molecule that is separate from, and can replicate independently of, the chromosomal DNA. They are double-stranded and, in many cases, circular...
and expressing a foreign gene in bacteria to produce a “protein foreign to a unicellular organism." These two scientist were able to replicate proteins such as HGH, ErythropoietinErythropoietinErythropoietin, or its alternatives erythropoetin or erthropoyetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
and InsulinInsulinInsulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
. The patent earned about $300 million in licensing royalties for Stanford.
- 1982 - FDA approved the release of the first genetically engineered Human InsulinInsulinInsulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
(Insulin produced by Genetech). Once completed, the cloning process lead to mass production of HumulinHumulinHumulin is the brand name for a group of biosynthetic human insulin products, originally developed by Genentech in 1978 and later acquired by Eli Lilly and Company, the company who arguably facilitated...
(under license by Eli Lilly).
- 1983 - Barbara McClintockBarbara McClintockBarbara McClintock , the 1983 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, was an American scientist and one of the world's most distinguished cytogeneticists. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University in 1927, where she was a leader in the development of maize cytogenetics...
was awarded the Nobel PrizeNobel PrizeThe Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
in Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her discovery of mobile genetic elements. McClintock studied transposonTransposonTransposable elements are sequences of DNA that can move or transpose themselves to new positions within the genome of a single cell. The mechanism of transposition can be either "copy and paste" or "cut and paste". Transposition can create phenotypically significant mutations and alter the cell's...
-mediated mutation and chromosome breakage in maize and published her first report in 1948 on transposable elements or transposons. She found that transposons were widely observed in corn however her ideas weren't widely granted attention until the 1960s and 1970s when the same phenomenon was discovered in bacteria and Drosophila melanogasterDrosophila melanogasterDrosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...
.
- 1983 - Kary MullisKary MullisKary Banks Mullis is a Nobel Prize winning American biochemist, author, and lecturer. In recognition of his improvement of the polymerase chain reaction technique, he shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith and earned the Japan Prize in the same year. The process was first...
of the Cetus Corporation drafted a technique for amplifying DNA through a cloning procedure that became known as polymerase chain reaction. Heat applied to the DNA segment causes it to separate, allowing the DNA polymeraseDNA polymeraseA DNA polymerase is an enzyme that helps catalyze in the polymerization of deoxyribonucleotides into a DNA strand. DNA polymerases are best known for their feedback role in DNA replication, in which the polymerase "reads" an intact DNA strand as a template and uses it to synthesize the new strand....
to bind with the single strand of DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
. Taq polymerase (heat activated polymerase that synthesizes DNA, isolated from Thermophilus aquaticus) is necessary for polymerase chain reaction to work, because other polymerase proteins would denature in such physiological conditions. In the presence of an excess of mononucleotides, the polymerase will replicate the DNA and the process can be repeated a number of times, yielding an exponential growth of the number of DNA strands.
- 1985 - Alec JeffreysAlec JeffreysSir Alec John Jeffreys, FRS is a British geneticist, who developed techniques for DNA fingerprinting and DNA profiling which are now used all over the world in forensic science to assist police detective work, and also to resolve paternity and immigration disputes...
announced DNA fingerprinting method. Jeffreys was studying DNA variation and the evolution of gene families in order to understand disease causing genes. In an attempt to develop a process to isolate many mini-satellites at once using chemical probes, Jeffreys took x-ray films of the DNA for examination and noticed that mini-satellite regions differ greatly from one person to another. In a DNA fingerprinting technique, a DNA sample is digested by treatment with specific nucleases or Restriction endonuclease and then the fragments are separated by electrophoresisElectrophoresisElectrophoresis, also called cataphoresis, is the motion of dispersed particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric field. This electrokinetic phenomenon was observed for the first time in 1807 by Reuss , who noticed that the application of a constant electric...
producing a template distinct to each individual banding pattern of the gel.
- 1986 - Jeremy NathansJeremy NathansJeremy Nathans is a professor molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University, in addition to a member of the National Academy of Sciences and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute....
found genes for color vision and color blindnessColor blindnessColor blindness or color vision deficiency is the inability or decreased ability to see color, or perceive color differences, under lighting conditions when color vision is not normally impaired...
, working with David Hogness, Douglas Vollrath and Ron Davis as they were studying the complexity of the retina.
- 1989 - Thomas CechThomas CechThomas Robert Cech is a chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel prize in chemistry with Sidney Altman, for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, which showed that life could have started as RNA...
discovered that RNARNARibonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....
can catalyze chemical reactions, making for one of the most important breakthroughs in molecular genetics, because it elucidates the true function of poorly understood segments of DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
.
1990s
- 1992 - American and British scientists unveiled a technique for testing embryos in-vitro (AmniocentesisAmniocentesisAmniocentesis is a medical procedure used in prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities and fetal infections, in which a small amount of amniotic fluid, which contains fetal tissues, is sampled from the amnion or amniotic sac surrounding a developing fetus, and the fetal DNA is examined for...
) for genetic abnormalities such as Cystic fibrosisCystic fibrosisCystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
and Hemophilia.
- 1993 - Phillip Allen Sharp and Richard RobertsRichard J. RobertsSir Richard "Rich" John Roberts is a British biochemist and molecular biologist. He was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Phillip Allen Sharp for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.When he was 4, his family moved to Bath. In...
discovered that genes in DNADNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
are made up of introns and exons. According to their findings not all the nucleotides on the RNA strand (product of DNA transcription) are used in the translation process. The intervening sequences in the RNARNARibonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....
strand are first spliced out so that only the RNA segment left behind after splicing would be translated to polypeptides.
- 1994 - The first breast cancer gene is discovered. BRCA IBRCA1BRCA1 is a human caretaker gene that produces a protein called breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein, responsible for repairing DNA. The first evidence for the existence of the gene was provided by the King laboratory at UC Berkeley in 1990...
, was discovered by researchers at the King laboratory at UC Berkeley in 1990 but was first cloned in 1994). BRCA IIBRCA2BRCA2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the BRCA2 gene.BRCA2 orthologs have been identified in most mammals for which complete genome data are available....
, the second key gene in the manifestation of breast cancer was discovered later in 1994 by Professor Michael StrattonMichael StrattonProfessor Michael Rudolf Stratton, FRS is a British clinical scientist and the third Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. He currently heads the Cancer Genome Project and is a leader of the International Cancer Genome Consortium.- Career :...
and Dr. Richard Wooster.
- 1996 - Alexander RichAlexander RichAlexander Rich, MD is a biologist and biophysicist. He is the William Thompson Sedgwick Professor of Biophysics at MIT and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rich earned both an A.B. and an M.D. from Harvard University. He was a post-doc of Linus Pauling along with James Watson...
discovered the Z-DNAZ-DNAZ-DNA is one of the many possible double helical structures of DNA. It is a left-handed double helical structure in which the double helix winds to the left in a zig-zag pattern...
, a type of DNA which is in a transient state, that is in some cases associated with DNA transcription. The Z-DNA form is more likely to occur in regions of DNA rich in cytosine and guanine with high salt concentrations.
- 1997 - Dolly the sheep was cloned by Ian WilmutIan WilmutSir Ian Wilmut, OBE FRS FMedSci FRSE is an English embryologist and is currently Director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic...
and colleagues from the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
2000s
- 2000 - The Drosophila melanogaster Genome is completed.
- 2003 - The Human Genome ProjectHuman Genome ProjectThe Human Genome Project is an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping the approximately 20,000–25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional...
is officially completed after being funded by Congress in 1988. Within the limits of today's technology, the human genome is as complete as it can be. Small gaps that are unrecoverable in any current sequencing method remain, accounting for about 1 percent of the gene-containing portion of the genomeGenomeIn modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
, or euchromatinEuchromatinEuchromatin is a lightly packed form of chromatin that is rich in gene concentration, and is often under active transcription. Unlike heterochromatin, it is found in both cells with nuclei and cells without nuclei...
. New technologies will have to be invented to obtain the sequence of these regions.
- 2004 - MerckMerck & Co.Merck & Co., Inc. , also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada, is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The Merck headquarters is located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, an unincorporated area in Readington Township...
introduced a vaccine for Human Papillomavirus which promised to protect women against infection with HPV 16 and 18, which inactivates tumor suppressor genes and together cause 70% of cervical cancers.
- 2007 - Michael Worobey traced the evolutionary origins of HIVHIVHuman immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
by analyzing its genetic mutations, which revealed that HIV infections had occurred in the United States as early as the 1960s.
- 2008 - Houston-based Introgen developed Advexin (FDA Approval pending), the first gene therapy for cancer and Li-Fraumeni syndromeLi-Fraumeni syndromeLi-Fraumeni syndrome is an extremely rare autosomal dominant hereditary disorder. It is named after Frederick Pei Li and Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr., the American physicians who first recognized and described the syndrome. Li-Fraumeni syndrome greatly increases susceptibility to cancer...
, utilizing a form of Adenovirus to carry a replacement gene coding for the p53P53p53 , is a tumor suppressor protein that in humans is encoded by the TP53 gene. p53 is crucial in multicellular organisms, where it regulates the cell cycle and, thus, functions as a tumor suppressor that is involved in preventing cancer...
protein.
External links
- http://www.hchs.hunter.cuny.edu/wiki/index.php?title=Modern_Science&printable=yes
- http://jem.rupress.org/content/79/2/137.full.pdf
- http://www.jbc.org/content/203/2/673.short
- http://www.nature.com/physics/looking-back/crick/Crick_Watson.pdf
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC534157/pdf/pnas00735-0082.pdf
- http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/timeline/1960_mRNA.php
- http://pediaview.com/openpedia/Crick,_Brenner_et_al._experiment
- http://www.molecularstation.com/molecular-biology-images/data/503/MRNA-structure.png
- http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/timeline/1973_Boyer.php
- http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/full/180/2/709
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC431765/pdf/pnas00043-0271.pdf
- http://www.patents4life.com/2010/11/bertram-rowland-1930-–-2010-biotech-patent-pioneer-dies
- http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Genentech-Inc-Company-History.html
- http://uhd.summon.serialssolutions.com/search?s.q=responses+of+the+genome+to+challenge&t.AuthorCombined=McClintock+Barbara&s.rf=PublicationDate%2C1984%3A*
- http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/jeffreys.html
- http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v316/n6023/abs/316076a0.html
- http://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Color_blindness
- http://web.mit.edu/lms/www/PDFpapers/Rich_%26_Zhang,_NRG,_7-03.pdf
- http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.bi.55.070186.003123
- http://web.mit.edu/lms/www/PDFpapers/Rich_%26_Zhang,_NRG,_7-03.pdf
- http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9702/24/cloning.explainer/index.html
- http://www.genome.gov/11006943