From Mendel to epigenetics: History of genetics.
The origins of genetics are to be found in Gregor Mendel's memoir on plant hybridization (1865). However, the word 'genetics' was only coined in 1906, to designate the new science of heredity. Founded upon the Mendelian method for analyzing the products of crosses, this science is distinguished by its explicit purpose of being a general 'science of heredity', and by the introduction of totally new biological concepts (in particular those of gene, genotype, and phenotype). In the 1910s, Mendelian genetics fused with the chromosomal theory of inheritance, giving rise to what is still called 'classical genetics'. Within this framework, the gene is simultaneously a unit of function and transmission, a unit of recombination, and of mutation. Until the early 1950s, these concepts of the gene coincided. But when DNA was found to be the material basis of inheritance, this congruence dissolved. Then began the venture of molecular biology, which has never stopped revealing the complexity of the way in which hereditary material functions.
Institut d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences et des techniques (IHPST), UMR8590, Université Paris-1/CNRS/ENS, 6, rue du Four, 75006 Paris, France. Electronic address: jean.gayon@univ-paris1.fr.
Jean
J
Gayon
D000818:Animals; D057890:Epigenomics / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends; D005796:Genes; D005823:Genetics / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics
Biologie moléculaire; Chromosomal theory of inheritance; Gene; Gène; Génétique mendélienne; Mendel; Mendelian genetics; Molecular biology; Théorie chromosomique de l’hérédité