History of genetics

Hippocrates has developed a theory resembling that later proposed by Darwin, who called it ‘pangenesis’. 

According to this view, each part of the body produces something which is then somehow collected in the ‘semen’, the germ cells.

Anaxagoras, the Athenian philosopher (500-428 BC) had similar views: …’in the same semen are contained hairs, nails, veins, arteries, tendons and their bones, albeit invisible as their particles are so small’. 

A comprehensive theory of inheritance was developed by Aristotle. He also believed in a qualitatively different contribution by the male and the female principles to procreation.

More or less casual observations on natural or accidental hybrids in plants were made over a long period, beginning with the observations of Cotton Mather on maize in 1716.

In 1857, Gregor Johann Mendel began his famous study of the pea plants in his garden; by 1866 he would publish the results of his cross-breeding experiments, the first step in understanding heredity and how it passed from one generation to another. He founded the concept of the gene, which has proved so fertile ever since.

Eventually, scientist discovered a substance that every living organism carries within its cells – DNA. The discovery of DNA’s double-helical structure changed the way genetics was done, with a profound shift to molecular interpretations of the gen and its function.

James D. Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins held that the structure settled the question that DNA is the genetic material. The structure immediately suggested to them how genes can replicate themselves.

In 1944, Oswald Theodore Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCrathy discovered that DNA was the special hereditary material that almost all living organisms need to reproduce and survive.
History of genetics