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Listen to this siteTuesday 13 May 2003
A history of humans' manipulation of genes in plants and animals.
BC
10,000–9000 People start planting crops rather than relying on hunting and gathering for food.
6000 Sumerians use yeast – a type of fungus – to make beer and wine.
5000 Farming communities in existence.
4000 Egyptians use yeast to make bread rise.
3000–2000 Peruvians select potatoes (from around 160 wild species) with lowest levels of poisons and grow them for food.
1000–700 Assyrians and Babylonians pollinate date palms by hand.
400 Hippocrates suggests that fathers' contribution to children's genetic inheritance is carried in semen.
AD
Late 17th century Cells and plant structures and functions described in detail. First systematic breeding of flowers in the Netherlands. Sexual basis of plant reproduction described, which suggested how different strains of crops could be crossbred to develop new types.
1719 Thomas Fairchild announces first production of artificial hybrid plant by crossing a carnation with a sweet william.
1727 Vilmorin Company, in France, develops Pedigree method of breeding sugar beets and starts research into plant breeding and improving cultivated varieties.
1750–1850 European farmers increase cultivation of legumes and rotate crops to increase yields.
1761–66 Joseph K lreuter uses tobacco plants to carry out the first systematic experiments in crossing varieties. He notes that hybrid plants often grow more vigorously than their parents.
1819 Patrick Shirreff starts breeding wheat and oats to develop new cultivated varieties and to study their differences.
1823 Thomas Knight (1759–1838) confirms evidence of dominance and recessivity in peas. Goes on to create new hybrids in staple British fruit and vegetable crops.
Early 1840's Sutton and Son (now Sutton Seeds) develops varieties of beets, peas and potatoes suitable for growing in Britain.
1850's Industrially processed animal feed and inorganic fertiliser introduced.
1865 Gregor Mendel lectures on his work on pea plants that establishes pattern of inherited characteristics. It is published the following year.
1884–8 Oscar Hertwig, Eduard Strasberger, Albrect von K lliker and August Weismann independently suggest that the cell nucleus carries the information needed for characteristics to be inherited.
1890's William Farrer runs a large wheat-breeding programme in Australia, selecting for resistance to disease, especially avoiding rust.
1899 Major international meeting in London on plant hybridisation.
20th century
1901 It is shown that bacteria can be used to make some important industrial chemicals.
Early 1900's: Biological staining is developed, so scientists can see structures in cells more clearly, including chromosomes. Noting that different organisms have different numbers of chromosomes they suspect chromosomes carry the information for each organism's development.
1902–1916 Several inheritance patterns identified for human disease, such as: alkaptonuria (1902); albinism (1903); Huntington's chorea (1913); and sex-linked conditions such as red/green colour blindness (1914) and haemophilia (1916).
1905: Chromosomes for sex inheritance identified.
1907–1917 Thomas Hunt Morgan's team at Columbia University work on gene mapping of the fruit fly. They set the standard for gene mapping, having shown that the gene, in specific positions on the chromosome, is the key to the heredity patterns Mendel described and how development is controlled.
1920's Hermann Muller reports that X-rays can bring about mutations in animals.
1928 Lewis Stadler describes impact of X-rays and radium on barley mutation.
1941 George Beadle and Edward Tatum show that one gene 'codes' (has instructions for) for a particular protein.
1941 Charlotte Auerbach and JM Robson show that chemicals can cause mutations.
1944 Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty show that DNA is the genetic molecule - it is the way genetic information is passed between generations.
1953 Francis Crick and James Watson announce that DNA has a double helix structure.
1950's/1960's Understanding of the structure of genes and how they work deepens.
1960's/1970's Work on creating high-yield varieties of major grains, especially wheat, corn, millet and rice, massively increases production of these crops in many countries. High-yield varieties tend to need more fertiliser, pesticide and water.
1966 Marshall Nirenberg, Heinrich Mathaei, and Severo Ochoa show the basis of the 'genetic code'. They demonstrate that a sequence of three nucleotide bases (a codon) determines each of 20 amino acids, which are the building blocks for proteins.
Early 1970's: All living organisms store genetic information in the same way, which means that genes can be moved between species.
1972 Paul Berg creates the first genetically modified DNA molecule.
1974 Stanley Cohen, Annie Chang and Herbert Boyer create the first genetically modified DNA organism.
1976 The National Institutes of Health in the United States produce guidelines for genetic modification research.
1977 First human protein manufactured in a bacteria.
1980's Present GM crop plants start being developed with useful characteristics such as herbicide tolerance and insect and virus resistance.
1982 Insulin produced by GM technology approved for sale by the US Food and Drugs Administration.
1983 Four separate groups of scientists create GM plants; three groups insert bacterial genes into plants and one inserts a bean gene into a sunflower plant.
1980's to early 1990's China first to put GM crops on sale, namely a virus-resistant tobacco and a tomato.
1990 GM used to make chymosin, an enzyme used in making hard cheese.
1993 Monsanto used GM to make bovine somatotropinprotein (BST) supplement to increase cows' milk yields.
1994 Marking the start of widespread use of genetically modified crop plants in the USA, the FlavrSavr tomato is introduced.
1995 Bt corn (corn modified with a bacterium gene to give it insect resistance) goes on the market in the USA.
1996 Roundup Ready Soybeans (soy beans resistant to Roundup herbicide) introduced in the USA.
1996 GM tomato paste approved in the UK, first GM herbicide tolerant soya beans (Roundup Ready Soybeans) and insect protected maize approved in the EU.
1997 EC Novel Foods Regulation (258/97) comes into effect, requiring a safety assessment for novel and GM foods before they go on sale.
1998 First GM labelling rules introduced to provide consumers with information regarding the use of GM ingredients in food.
2000 initial draft of human genome published.
21st century and the future
2004 Golden rice: a rice that can make beta-carotene (which our bodies make into vitamin A) is grown in parts of the world where people are deficient in vitamin A. Potatoes that contain extra protein go on sale.
2005 Salt tolerant tomatoes that can be grown on land that can't normally be used for agriculture because of salt level in soil.
2005 Sunflowers resistant to white mould marketed.
2005 Complete human genome published.
By the end of the decade – Decaffeinated coffee and tea plants (already patented)
By the end of the decade – Disease-resistant grapes
By the end of the decade – Plant-based vaccines: Food crops genetically engineered to produce edible vaccines.
Disclaimer: Although checked against a variety of sources, dates will vary according to dates of discovery/publication and usage. This is not a comprehensive list but is designed to provide a guide to the chronology of gene manipulation and a context for the current debate.
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