DNA Timeline

1865 Gregor Mendel

 Publishes his findings
about patterns of
inheritance
 Charles Darwin
published his findings
about Natural
Selection
1868 Friedrich Miescher
 Swiss biologist
 Studied nuclei of pus cells
obtained from discarded surgical
bandages
 Detected a phosphorus-
containing substance that he
named nuclein.
 Showed nuclein to consist of an
acidic portion, known today as
DNA, and a basic protein portion
now recognized as histones
1902 Walter Sutton
 Using grasshopper
chromosomes he
showed that
chromosomes occur in
distinct pairs, which
segregate at meiosis.
 Proposed that genes
were located on
chromosomes
Big Question…
Since Chromosomes are made up of nucleic
acids and protein ….

Which molecule holds the genetic

information – DNA or Proteins?
1928 Frederick Griffiths
 Proved that there was a transforming factor
1944
Avery, McCarty, & MacLeod
 Built on Griffith’s
experiment to prove
that DNA, not
protein, was the
transforming factor
 Looked at each of the
organic compounds
separately and only
DNA passed on lethal
traits
1951 Rosalind Franklin
 Used X-ray diffraction to
show the shape of DNA to
be a double-helix
 Famous photo 51 was
taken by Wilkins without
her knowledge
 Died in 1958 before Nobel
prize was awarded in 1962
1951 Erwin Chargaff
 Showed that there
were always equal
amounts of Adenine
(A) & Thymine (T)
and equal amounts
of Guanine (G) and
Cytosine (C) in DNA
 Led to idea of Base
pairing = Chargaff’s
rule
1952
Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase

 Used bacteria
and viruses to
prove DNA held
the genetic
code
1953
James Watson & Francis Crick
 Master puzzle makers
 Used information from
others and put it all
together to realize the
structure and function
of DNA
Structure & Function –
DNA vs. Protein
DNA Protein
• Nucleotides – 3 parts • Amino acids
• 5 C Sugar + • Acid backbone
phosphate (backbone) • 20 different AA to
• 4 different bases code for millions of
(rungs)
different proteins
• Order of bases • Order of Amino Acids
determine code for determines specific
amino acids protein
DNA  Amino Acid  protein
1956 Ribosomes -
site of Protein synthesis
1962 NOBEL PRIZE
 DNA Timeline
Griffiths
1928
DNA first Sex
observed chromosomes Ribosomes
1868 1905 1956

1865 1900’s 1944 1951 1952 1953 1962

Mendel Sutton Avery, Franklin Hershey Watson Nobel
McCarty & Chase & Crick Prize
& Macleod Chargaff

1982 1984 1997 2000-2003

Genetically DNA Dolly Human
engineered Fingerprinting cloned Genome
insulin Project