|
Thomas Hunt Morgan in his laboratory
|
 |
1866-1945 Thomas Hunt Morgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan began experimenting with Drosophilia, the fruit fly, in 1908. He bred a single white-eyed male fly with a red-eyed female. All the offspring produced by this union, both male and female, had red eyes. Morgan then bred these male and female siblings, which resulted in some offspring with red eyes and some with white eyes. All of the flies with white eyes were males. From these and other results, Morgan established a theory of heredity that was based on the idea that genes, arranged on the chromosomes, carry hereditary factors that are expressed in different combinations when coupled with the genes of a mate. In 1933, Morgan won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of "hereditary transmission mechanisms in Drosophilia."
|
|
