Coining the terms "gene", "phenotype" and "genotype"

JOHANNSEN, Wilhelm.

Elemente der exakten Erblichkeitslehre. Deutsche wesentlich erweiterte Ausgabe in fünfundzwanzig Vorlesungen.

Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1909.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003529

8vo (231 x 158 mm). vi, 515 [1] pp., tables and diagrams. Contemporary half roan and marbled boards gilt, marbled edges (extremities rubbed). Provenance: Ignatiuskolleg Valkenburg (stamp on title, shelf-mark label on spine); Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune. A crisp and clean copy. ----

Garrison-Morton 6844; DSB, VII, pp 113-115. FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST AND MOST INFLUENTIAL TEXTBOOK ON GENETICS, whose author coined the word 'gene' in the present work to describe the Mendelian units of heredity in addition to the terms 'phenotype' (to mean the outward appearance of an individual) and 'genotype' (to mean its genetic traits). "Johannsen was one of the founders of the science of genetics. His view of the unit of heredity, to which he first gave the name 'gene' (1909), has survived the changes brought about by the discovery of the physical basis of heredity, first in the chromosomes and then more precisely in the structure of the nucleic acids" (DSB).
"More support for the Mendelian law of inheritance was provided by Johannsen, a Danish botanist, who showed that in certain self-fertilizing plants a pure line of descendants can be maintained indefinitely, in which case natural selection is not effective, selection depending upon genetic variability. He introduced the term 'gene' in 1909." (Garrison-Morton 242) - Visit our website to see more images!

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