Pioneers of Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (PMIA)

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1903 Castle, W.E.
Mendel's law of heredity.
Science 18: 396-406

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This is a revised version (published on 25 September 1903) of the paper of the same title published nine months earlier, in January 1903 (see commentary above).

This paper includes the first published mention of the Mendelian inheritance of rough/smooth hair in guinea pigs.

Sometime during 1903, Castle discovered that Cuénot had reported the Mendelian inheritance of gray/white (albino) in mice the previous year (see commentary above on Cuénot, 1902). The results of Allen therefore independently confirmed Cuénot’s results.

On page 400 of this paper, as in his 9 January 1903 paper (see a previous commentary), Castle implies that he has data showing similar results in other animal species: “Among domesticated guinea-pigs, as among mice and rabbits, albinism is recessive with respect to pigmented coat”. As we have seen in a previous commentary, the data supporting this claim were published by Castle (1905).

Castle then implies he has evidence that the Abyssinian or rough coat of guinea-pigs is a Mendelian trait, dominant to smooth coat. He then proceeds to consider at length the joint Mendelian segregation of the two pairs of traits, namely pigmented/white and rough/smooth. But no data are presented.

The remainder of the paper is very similar to the earlier (January 1903) version.

References

Castle, W.E. (1905) Heredity of coat characters in guinea-pigs and rabbits. Carnegie Institute Publication Issue 23: 1-78. View this publication

Cuénot, L. (1902) La loi de Mendel et l'hérédité de la pigmentation chez les souris [Mendel's law and the heredity of pigmentation in mice]. Archives de zoologie expérimentale et générale, 3e série 10: 27-30. View an English translation of this paper