Walter Fiers and his team at the University of Ghent were the first to determine the sequence of a gene: the gene for bacteriophage MS2 coat protein. Richard J. Roberts and Phillip Sharp discovered in 1977 that genes can be split into segments. This led to the idea that one gene can make several proteins. The successful sequencing of many organisms' genomes has complicated the molecular definition of the gene. In particular, genes do not always sit side by side on DNA like discrete beads. Instead, regions of the DNA producing distinct proteins may overlap, so that the idea emerges that "genes are one long continuum". It was first hypothesised in 1986 by Walter Gilbert that neither DNA nor protein would be required in such a primitive system as that of a very early stage of the earth if RNA could serve both as a catalyst and as genetic information storage processor. The modern study of genetics at the level of DNA is known as molecular genetics and the synthesis of molecular genetics with traditional Darwinian evolution is known as the modern evolutionary synthesis. See also List of sequenced eukaryotic genomes History of molecular biology History of RNA Biology History of evolutionary thought One gene-one enzyme hypothesis Phage group References Further reading Elof Axel Carlson, Mendel's Legacy: The Origin of Classical Genetics (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2004.) External links Olby's "Mendel, Mendelism, and Genetics," at MendelWeb ""Experiments in Plant Hybridization" (1866), by Johann Gregor Mendel," by A. Andrei at the Embryo Project Encyclopedia http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEPC/WWC/1994/geneticstln.html http://www.sysbioeng.com/index/cta94-11s.jpg http://www.esp.org/books/sturt/history/ http://cogweb.ucla.edu/ep/DNA_history.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2000/human_genome/749026.stm https://web.archive.org/web/20120323085256/http://www.hchs.hunter.cuny.edu/wiki/index.php?title=Modern_Science&printable=yes http://jem.rupress.org/content/79/2/137.full.pdf http://www.nature.com/physics/looking-back/crick/Crick_Watson.pdf http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/timeline/1960_mRNA.php https://web.archive.org/web/20120403041525/http://www.molecularstation.com/molecular-biology-images/data/503/MRNA-structure.png http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/timeline/1973_Boyer.php http://www.genetics.org/cgi/content/full/180/2/709 http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9702/24/cloning.explainer/index.html http://www.genome.gov/11006943 Genetics Gregor Mendel Genetics