History of
Classical (Mendelian) Genetics
Discovery
JG
Kölreuter (c. 1760), KF Gärtner
(ca. 1800), & TA Knight
(c. 1823): qualitative plant
hybridization
[see review by Zirkle
(1951) ]
Pedigrees: The case of the Hapsburg
Lip
G
Mendel (1822 - 1884)
Experiments on Pisum (1856
~ 1866)
Mendel's Three Laws
Dominant vs Recessive
Segregation
Independent Assortment
Did Mendel Cheat?
C Nageli (1817 - 1891)
Yes but ....
Biometricians (< 1900)
F Galton
(1822 - 1911)
Correlation
as (literal) Regression to Mean
Eugenics ("good
birth") to breed "superior" humans
K Pearson
(1857 - 1936)
Statistical methods
for genetics
"Law of Filial
Regression"
Continuous vs Dis-continuous
variation in
evolution
Re-discovery (1900) [primary papers]
E Tschermak (1871 - 1962) found citation
H de Vries (1848 - 1935)
replicated Mendel, published 1900
Macromutation theory
of
evolution from Oenothera
C Correns (1864 - 1933) observed 3:1
ratios in Pisum
Emphasized Mendel's priority
WJ
Spillman (1863 - 1931) "American"
rediscovery ? [HOMEWORK]
Integration
W Bateson (1861 - 1926)
Emphasizes discontinuous variation
(1894)
Homozygote,
Heterozygote, "allelomorph" => "Allele"
(1902)
A Garrod
(1857 - 1936)
Mendelian genetics in
humans: Alkaptonuria
(1902)
K Landsteiner
(1868 - 1943)
ABO blood types
follow & extend Mendel's Laws (1911) [Nobel Prize, 1930]
W Johannsen
(1857 - 1927)
Mendel's "factor"
named "Gene" (1908)
Distinction bx Genotype
vs Phenotype (1911)
"The Fly Room"
Drosophila
melanogaster as experimental organism (1906)
TH Morgan (1866 - 1945) [Nobel Prize, 1933]
Critical of Darwinian
evolution, UNTIL
"White eyed"
mutant behaves in accordance with Mendel's Laws (1910)
A Sturtevant (1891 - 1970)
First linkage
map of Drosophila (1913): genes occur in linear
order
"A
History of Genetics" (1965)
C Bridges (1889 - 1938) &
N Stevens
(1861 - 1912) on sex linkage & determination
H
Muller (1890 - 1967) [Nobel
Prize, 1946]
Mutagenisis
property of X-rays
Chromosome Genetics
TS Painter
(1889 - 1969) set human chromosome count 2N = 48 (1921)
2N = 46 demonstrated
from 1952
Denver Convention (1960); Paris
Conference (1975; 1,000 band standard
(1990)
Fluorescent
In Situ Hybridization (FISH) "chromosome
painting"
Russian & Soviet Genetics: Science vs
Politics
Th Dobzhansky (1900 - 1975)
"Genetics of Natural
Populations" in 48 parts (1938 - 1976)
Painter
discovers polytene chromosomes (1934)
"Genetics and
the Origin of Species" (1937; 4th ed. 1970)
S
Chetverikov (1880 - 1959)
"On certain aspects of the evolutionary
process from the standpoint of modern genetics"
(1921)
N Vavilov
(1887 - 1943) [film]
Centers of Origin of cultivated plants;
Seed Banks
Crop development by genetic crosses requires time
TD
Lysenko (1898 - 1976)
Vernalization
"converts" Winter 
Spring Wheat: are
modified traits inherited?
Michurinist
pseudo-scientific breeder ["Michurin"
(1948): Death of Lenin at 1:10:45]
Soviet Biology dominates Genetics: "The Lysenko
Affair" (BBC, 1974)
"Marxist
- Leninism" theory displaces "Mendelist -
Morganist" science
A cautionary tale: What happens when science
confronts politics? [HOMEWORK]
Mendelism re-emergent
& triumphant after 1965
REMEMBER: All of this without
knowledge of DNA as hereditary molecule