Genes, Chromosomes, and Disease: From Simple Traits, to Complex Traits, to Personalized Medicine

Preface

The science of genetics began in 1900 with the independent rediscovery of Mendel’s 1866 paper by Carl Correns and Hugo de Vries. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, blending theories of inheritance prevailed, but it became clear to Charles Darwin and his cousin Francis Galton that the hereditary elements must be particulate to provide the kind of variation upon which natural selection could work. Each of them proposed a particulate theory of inheritance, but the particles had to be hypothetical as the architecture of the cell and its different components were only beginning to reveal themselves to the curious eye. By 1900, a great deal was known about cell structure. In particular, chromosomes had been identified and Walther Flemming, ...