THE SEA URCHIN AND THE FRUIT FLY: CELL BIOLOGY AND HEREDITY, 1900-1910

¹ Dipartimento di Genetica e Biologia Molecolare, Universita degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza," and Gruppo di Storia delle Scienze Biologiche, Stazione Zoologica di Napoli

The choice of an experimental subject particularly suitable for a specific research field opened the way for new discoveries and new theories. The sea urchin and the fruit fly, the material of choice for embryological and genetic research, symbolize two different research traditions.

Knowledge regarding these animals was vast but largely separate, with little cross fertilization, so that by the `30s little was known about the genetic system of the sea urchin, and embryological studies of Drosophila were just beginning.

This paper illustrates the reason for this disciplinary distinction. Embryologists concentrated on the relationships between nucleus and cytoplasm while geneticists of the "Drosophila Group" concentrated on the nucleus, focusing exclusively on the transmission aspects of heredity. T. H. Morgan's work forms a central focus, as he moved from an embryological concern to build a new scientific program of genetic transmission work.