Tsvi Tlusty · Theory of Life

Landmark Experiments in Biology

Elisha Moses & Tsvi Tlusty · first assembled 2006

Twenty-nine experiments and papers that changed the way we think about living systems.

A physicist’s reading list of classic biology: experiments whose logic exposed selection, heredity, morphogenesis, molecular information, excitability, and memory.

The same questions—how living matter stores, transmits, and acts on information— continue here .

Evolution

Selection, heredity, origins, and evolution made experimental.

  1. Darwin C, Wallace A — On the tendencies of species to form varieties; and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by means of selection · J Proc Linnean Soc Zool 3, 45–62 (1858).
    Natural selection
  2. Mendel G — Experiments in plant hybridization (1865). Read at the February 8 and March 8, 1865 meetings of the Brünn Natural History Society.
    Hartl DL, Orel V — What did Gregor Mendel think he discovered? · Genetics 131 , 245–253 (1992).
    Mendelian inheritance
  3. Miller SL — Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions · Science 117 , 528 (1953).
    Miller SL, Urey HC — Organic Compound Synthesis on the Primitive Earth · Science 130 , 245 (1959).
    Prebiotic chemistry
  4. Eigen M — Self-organization of matter and the evolution of biological macromolecules · Naturwissenschaften 58 , 465–523 (1971).
    Molecular evolution
  5. Kimura M — Evolutionary rate at the molecular level · Nature 217 , 624–626 (1968).
    Neutral evolution
  6. Mills DR, Peterson RL, Spiegelman S — An Extracellular Darwinian Experiment with a Self-Duplicating Nucleic Acid Molecule · Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 58 , 217–224 (1967).
    Experimental evolution
  7. Dubertret B, Liu S, Ouyang Q, Libchaber A — Dynamics of DNA-Protein Interaction Deduced from in vitro DNA Evolution · Phys Rev Lett 86 , 6022–6025 (2001).
    DNA–protein evolution

For other landmarks, see Classical Papers in Genetics — a collection of genetics masterpieces since Aristotle.

Development

How form emerges: morphogenesis, lineage, patterning, and induction.

  1. Turing A — The chemical basis of morphogenesis · Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 237 , 37–72 (1952).
    Morphogenesis
  2. Brenner S — The genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans · Genetics 77 , 71–94 (1974).
    Genetic model organism
  3. Sulston JE, Horvitz HR — Post-embryonic Cell Lineages of the Nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans · Developmental Biology 56 , 110–156 (1977).
    See also .
    Sulston JE — Post-embryonic development in the ventral cord of Caenorhabditis elegans · Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 275 , 287–297 (1976).
    Horvitz HR, Sulston JE — Isolation and genetic characterization of cell-lineage mutants of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans · Genetics 96 , 435–454 (1980).
    Cell lineage
  4. Lewis EB — A gene complex controlling segmentation in Drosophila · Nature 276 , 565–570 (1978).
    Homeotic genes
  5. Nüsslein-Volhard C, Wieschaus E — Mutations affecting segment number and polarity in Drosophila · Nature 287 , 795–801 (1980).
    Nüsslein-Volhard C — Of flies and fishes · Science 266 , 572 (1994).
    Segmentation
  6. Spemann H, Mangold H — Induction of Embryonic Primordia by Implantation of Organizers from a Different Species · Arch Mikroskop Anat Entwicklungsmechanik 100 , 599–638 (1924).
    Embryonic induction

Molecular Biology

From chromosomes to DNA, the genetic code, replication, and regulation.

  1. Sturtevant AH — The linear arrangement of 6 sex-linked factors in Drosophila as shown by their mode of association · J Exp Zool 14 , 43–59 (1913).
    Genetic mapping
  2. Creighton HS, McClintock B — A correlation of cytological and genetical crossing-over in Zea Mays · Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 17 , 492–497 (1931).
    Crossing-over
  3. Avery OT, MacLeod CM, McCarty M — Studies of the Chemical Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation of Pneumococcal Types · J Exp Med 79 , 137–158 (1944).
    DNA as genetic material
  4. Luria SE, Delbrück M — Mutations of bacteria from virus sensitivity to virus resistance · Genetics 28 , 491–511 (1943).
    Mutation by fluctuation
  5. Lederberg J, Cavalli LL, Lederberg EM — Sex compatibility in Escherichia coli · Genetics 37 , 720 (1952).
    Bacterial genetics
  6. Pauling L, Corey RB, Branson HR — The structure of proteins: two hydrogen-bonded helical configurations of the polypeptide chain · Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 37 , 205–211 (1951).
    Protein structure
  7. Watson JD, Crick FHC — Molecular structure of nucleic acids · Nature 171 , 737–738 (1953).
    DNA structure
  8. Matthaei JH, Nirenberg MW — Characteristics and stabilization of DNAase-sensitive protein synthesis in E. coli extracts · Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 47 , 1580–1588 (1961).
    Nirenberg MW — The Genetic Code: II · Scientific American 208, 80–94 (1963).
    Genetic code
  9. Meselson M, Stahl FW — The replication of DNA in E. coli · Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 44 , 671–682 (1958).
    DNA replication
  10. Crick FHC, Barnett L, Brenner S, Watts-Tobin RJ — The general nature of the genetic code for proteins · Nature 192 , 1227–1232 (1961).
    Triplet code
  11. Jacob F, Monod J — Genetic regulatory mechanisms in the synthesis of proteins · J Mol Biol 3 , 318–356 (1961).
    Pardee AB, Jacob F, Monod J — The genetic control and cytoplasmic expression of inducibility in the synthesis of beta-galactosidase in E. coli · J Mol Biol 1 , 165–178 (1959).
    Jacob F, Perrin D, Sanchez C, Monod J — Operon: a group of genes with expression coordinated by an operator · C R Acad Sci Paris 250, 1727–1729 (1960).
    Gene regulation

Neurobiology

Synapses, receptive fields, ion channels, excitability, and memory.

  1. Katz B, Miledi R — The statistical nature of the acetylcholine potential and its molecular components · J Physiology 224 , 665–699 (1972).
    Quantal transmission
  2. Wiesel TN, Hubel DH.
    Receptive fields of single neurons in the cat's striate cortex · J Physiol 148 , 574–591 (1959).
    Laminar and columnar distribution of geniculo-cortical fibers in the macaque monkey · J Comparative Neurology 146 , 421–450 (1972).
    Visual cortex
  3. Neher E, Sakmann B — Single-channel currents recorded from membrane of denervated frog muscle fibres · Nature 260 , 799–802 (1976).
    Single ion channels
  4. Hodgkin AL, Huxley AF.
    Measurement of current-voltage relations in the membrane of the giant axon of Loligo · J Physiology 116 , 424–448 (1952).
    Current carried by sodium and potassium through the membrane of the giant axon of Loligo · J Physiology 116 , 449–472 (1952).
    The components of membrane conductance in the giant axon of Loligo · J Physiology 116 , 473–496 (1952).
    The dual effect of membrane potential on sodium conductance in the giant axon of Loligo · J Physiology 116 , 497–506 (1952).
    A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve · J Physiology 117 , 500–544 (1952).
    Action potential
  5. Kandel ER, Tauc L.
    Heterosynaptic facilitation in neurons of the abdominal ganglion of Aplysia depilans · J Physiology 181 , 1–27 (1965).
    Mechanism of heterosynaptic facilitation in the giant cell of the abdominal ganglion of Aplysia depilans · J Physiology 181 , 28–47 (1965).
    Dash PK, Hochner B, Kandel ER — Injection of the cAMP-responsive element into the nucleus of Aplysia sensory neurons blocks long-term facilitation · Nature 345 , 718–721 (1990).
    Synaptic plasticity

Course presentations

Selected presentations from the original course.

Citation · Elisha Moses & Tsvi Tlusty, Landmark Experiments in Biology , adaptivelivingmatter.org/landmark.html .