S5.16 Hap-pea 200th birthday, Mendel!
Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Kat Arney. 20th July 2022 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Gregor Mendel, a Czech friar whose observations of plant breeding laid the foundations for the modern science of genetics. In this episode we unearth some of the less well-known stories about Mendel’s life and work, and learn about the latest research into the genetics of human traits that would have blown his mind.
Kat: Last month I was lucky enough to be invited to The Genetics Society’s event at the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Wisley celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Gregor Mendel, arguably the forefather of modern genetics. It was a packed day of fascinating lectures from the Society’s latest crop of medal winners, covering a wide range of topics from epigenetic inheritance to mutations in early development to sex differences in fly poop.
You can catch up on the whole event which was livestreamed on Youtube by following the this link
Following an introduction from Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, the Society’s president, we were treated to a lecture from Professor Alison Woollard from the University of Oxford, who took us on a whistlestop tour of Mendel’s life and work, and how the field of genetics has progressed over the past two centuries.
Alison Woollard: Gregor Mendel - the man, the myth, the legend
We caught up with Alison Wollard after her lecture to chat about some of the less well-known aspects of Mendel’s life and work. Click here to read the transcript of Alison's interview...
Greg Radick: If Mendel had met Darwin
Seeing as we’re talking about Mendel, I wanted to flash back to an interview I did at another Genetics Society event on the 8th of March 2019 - the anniversary of the day in 1865 that Mendel presented his work on inheritance in pea plants to his local scientific society in Brno.
Six years earlier, Charles Darwin - the ‘grandfather of evolution’ had published his groundbreaking work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. In 1868, he published the follow-up to this smash hit, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, with the next bestseller, The Descent of Man, hitting the shelves in 1871.
While we know that Mendel read Darwin’s work, as evidenced by his pencil-marked copy of Origin of Species at the Abbey, did Darwin read Mendel? Someone who’s been speculating on this scenario is Professor Greg Radick from the University of Leeds - a leading expert in the history of genetics who gave a lecture at the event.
Rosa Cheesman: From Mendelian inheritance to sociogenomics
We spent some time with Dr Rosa Cheesman from the University of Oslo, winner of the Professor Sir Kenneth Mather prize. Rosa and her colleagues are moving far beyond the Mendelian concept of one gene, one trait, using modern genomic methods such as polygenic risk indices to understand complex human traits and behaviours, including how genes interact with education. Click here to read the transcript of Rosa's interview...
That’s all for now. If you’re curious to learn more about how our genes shape our lives - and what, if anything, we should do with this knowledge - then check out episode 24 of season 4, The Natural Lottery, where I speak to Professor Paige Harden about her research in this area.
Thanks to Alison Woollard, Rosa Cheesman, Greg Radick and, of course, to The Genetics Society who support this podcast and laid on the lovely birthday celebrations for Mendel at Wisley.
We’ll be back next time returning to the theme of how genetics shape societies, but turning our attention to the animal world rather than our own species.
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to leave us a rating in the Spotify app or review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
This episode of Genetics Unzipped was written and presented by me, Kat Arney, and produced by Sally Le Page. It is made by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies dedicated to promoting research, training, teaching and public engagement in all areas of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk. Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
