Timeline of model organisms

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Year	Kingdom	Event type	Details	Location/researcher affiliation
1900			German botanist Carl Correns conducts experiments on Zea mays, commonly known as corn or maize. Correns confirms the findings of Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, regarding the principles of inheritance and genetic traits. Mendel's work, initially published in 1866, outlines the laws of inheritance based on his experiments with pea plants. Correns' validation of Mendel's findings with Zea mays provided further evidence for the existence of discrete units of inheritance, which we now know as genes. This confirmation plays a crucial role in the establishment of modern genetics and lays the foundation for understanding heredity in plants and animals.	Germany
1902			American biologist William Ernest Castle begins genetic studies on Mus musculus, commonly known as the house mouse. This marks the initiation of systematic genetic research on this species. Castle's work contributes to the understanding of inheritance patterns and genetic variation in mice, laying the groundwork for further investigations into the genetic basis of traits and the mechanisms of heredity. His studies on Mus musculus were instrumental in the development of mouse models for genetic research, which continue to be crucial in biomedical research and the study of human genetics.	United States
1909			Thomas Hunt Morgan begins his groundbreaking work with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, which would become synonymous with his name. Prior to this, C. W. Woodworth and W. E. Castle had shown interest in Drosophila for genetic studies. Morgan's research with Drosophila would lead to the discovery of sex linkage of the gene for white eyes, demonstrating the phenomenon of linkage. He bred Drosophila in large quantities, facilitating the analysis of spontaneous mutations and the localization of genes. Morgan's work laid the foundation for understanding the linear arrangement of genes in chromosomes and significantly advanced the field of genetics.
1913			Edgar Nelson Emerson and Roland McMillan East publish a significant paper on quantitative genetics in Zea mays. This paper marks an important milestone in the understanding of genetic principles governing quantitative traits, which are traits controlled by multiple genes and influenced by environmental factors. Emerson and East's work would contribute to the development of quantitative genetics as a field by elucidating the complex inheritance patterns of traits such as height, yield, and other quantitative characteristics in maize. Their research lays the foundation for further studies in the genetics of complex traits in various organisms.
1915			D. melanogaster: First book on Mendelian genetics is published from the Morgan Group
1927			Neurospora crassa: Shear and Dodge discover sexual cycle and describe mating types
1930			Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: Moewus develops genetic system.
1935			Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Winge describes haplo- and diplophase of life cycle.
1937			Paramecium spp.: Sonneborn and Jennings domesticate crosses and define mating types.
1939			T phages: Ellis and Delbrück describe replication cycle, ‘one-step growth.
1941			N. crassa: Beadle and Tatum isolate first biochemical mutants.
1943			Arabidopsis thaliana: Laibach initiates program in genetics and development.
1943			S.cerevisiae: Lindegren begins genetics with heterothallic strains.
1944			T phages: Delbrück initiates Phage Group.
1946			Escherichia coli: Lederberg and Tatum discover gene exchange.
1946			S. cerevisiae: Ephrussi discovers cytoplasmic petite colonie variant.
1949			S. cerevisiae: Roman begins major US genetic studies.
1950			C. reinhardtii: Lewin and Sager begin nuclear and organelle genetic studies.
1950			Z. mays: McClintock describes transposable elements.
1951			Phage lambda: Lederberg laboratory discovers phage and specialized transduction
1952			Phage P22: Zinder and Lederberg discover transduction
1953			Aspergillus nidulans: Pontecorvo describes genetic and parasexual systems
1954			N. crassa: First major article on map construction in N. crassa
1956			C. reinhardtii: Levine develops important genetic programme
1958			C. reinhardtii: Gillham begins genetics of chloroplast
1958			Tetrahymena thermophila: Allen and Nanney describe genetic system
1960			E. coli: Jacob and Wollman fully describe genetic system.
1965			A. thaliana: First International Arabidopsis Symposium.
1965			Caenorhabditis elegans: Brenner proposes programme in genetics of neural development.
1966			Homo sapiens: First edition of Mendelian Inheritance in Man
1974			C. elegans: Important genetics publication.
1980			D. melanogaster: NüssleinVolhard and Wieschaus isolate developmental mutants.
1981			D. rerio: Clonal propagation method published.
1984			A. thaliana: Leutwiler et al. determine genome size.
1986			D. rerio: Important genetics publication.
1996			S. cerevisiae: Genome sequenced.
1996			D. rerio: Large-scale screen for developmental mutants.
1997			E. coli: Genome sequenced.
1998			C. elegans: Genome sequenced.
2000			A. thaliana: Genome sequenced.
2000			D. melanogaster: Genome sequenced.
2001			H. sapiens: Genome sequenced.
2002			M. musculus: Genome sequenced
2003			N. crassa: Genome sequenced.

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The initial version of the timeline was written by FIXME.

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What the timeline is still missing

• Davis, R. H. (2004). The age of model organisms. Nature Reviews Genetics, 5(1), 69–76. doi:10.1038/nrg1250
• A column for kingdom
• [1]
• [2]
• Model organism
• History of model organisms
• [3]

See also

• Timeline of animal testing