1910s Timeline - John Innes Centre

Bateson, Newton and
Darlington are united by a
common bond of dislike for
Farmer, Gates and E. W.
MacBride, the first two they
dislike for their (as they see it)
unreliable cytological
observations, the last for his
anti-genetical Lamarckian
views. Challenging these
biologists gives Darlington’s
work direction and momentum
until 1930.
Darlington is encouraged to
work on three sets of problems.
Firstly, studies on the structure,
mechanics and division of the
chromosomes particularly at
meiosis using Liliaceous plants
with large chromosomes, this
was first done in close
collaboration with W C F
Newton; Secondly, studies on
plants with a known genetic
background (and freely available
at JIHI) such as Primula sinensis
and Prunus species, but with
chromosomes that were small
and less favourable for study;
and Thirdly, the study of
variegation by breeding not by
cytology, particularly in Vicia
faba (broad beans).
Darlington’s first choice is the
study of meiosis in large
chromosomes, the study of
Prunus and Primula is very much
a second choice, and the study
of variegation is to him a ‘chore’
and an example of assisting the
regular staff (in fact, Bateson).
Darlington brings all three of
these diverse studies to fruition
during the course of his career,
but it is the first area and the
series of papers he produces on
meiosis, chiasmata and crossing
over and chromosome pairing in
diploids and polyploids that,
culminating in 1932, makes an
immediate worldwide impact.
See:
Dan Lewis, ‘Cyril Dean
Darlington 1903-81’, Heredity,
48, 2 (1982): 161-67.
1923 JIHI work on mangolds
results in a new commercial
crop
The seed firm Messrs Suttons of
Reading, Berkshire, to whom a
set of JIHI’s ‘non-bolting’ strain
of Golden Tankard mangolds
was sent some years ago, sell
the seed commercially for the
first time.
1924 ‘Progress in Biology’
William Bateson is invited to
give an address in March 1924 to
mark the centenary of Birkbeck
College, London.
In his lecture he pays tribute to
T H Morgan and his team of
cytologists who had proved
‘some, probably all, of this
group of [transferable]
characters are transmitted by
elements in or attached to the
chromosomes. Possibly, . . . the
visible distinctions were
produced not by the presence or
absence of a piece of
chromosome material, but by
an interaction between the
chromosomes as a whole. . .’
Chromosomes begin to be a
feature of Genetical Society
meetings.
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