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Q.Who proposed the Chromosome Theory of Inheritance?

Telangana TsbieTelangana Board of Intermediate Education 2020Subjective· 2mImportance★★★★★
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Walter Sutton and Theodor Boveri (1902) independently proposed that chromosomes are the physical carriers of Mendelian factors (genes).

After the rediscovery of Mendel's laws around 1900, cytologists began studying the behaviour of chromosomes during meiosis and noticed striking parallels with the behaviour of Mendel's 'factors' (genes) as inferred from his breeding experiments.

Walter Sutton (working with grasshopper chromosomes) and Theodor Boveri (working with sea urchins), working independently, both proposed around 1902 that chromosomes are the physical bearers of the hereditary units (genes) Mendel had postulated. This became known as the Chromosome Theory of Inheritance (also called the Sutton-Boveri theory).

The theory was based on observed parallels:

  • Chromosomes, like Mendelian factors, occur in pairs (homologous pairs) in diploid cells.
  • One chromosome of each pair is inherited from the mother and one from the father, mirroring the segregation of the two alleles of a gene.
  • Chromosomes segregate during meiosis (anaphase I) in the same way that Mendel's factors segregate during gamete formation (Law of Segregation). …

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