From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
In the first half of the 20th
century,
Mendelism was not a popular
subject among French biologists.
However, one man, Lucien Cuenot,
defied popular opinion and shirked
the “pseudo-sciences” as he called
them. Upon the rediscovery of
Mendel's work by
Correns,
Devries, and
Tschermak, Cuenot proved that
Mendelism applied to animals as
well as plants.
Cuenot’s experiments
Cuenot spent two years working
on mice and came to the conclusion
that three “mnemons” (genes) are
responsible for the production of
one “chromogen” or
pigment and two “distases”
enzymes. The pigment (if
present) is acted upon by the
enzymes to produce black or yellow
colour. If no pigment is present
the result is an
albino mouse. Cuenot studied
the offspring of various crosses
between mice and concluded that
these “mnemons” or
genes were inherited in a
Mendelian fashion.
Subsequently, Cuenot was the
first person to describe
multiple allelism at a genetic
locus. He also described a
lethal
mutation in the mouse agouti
locus at a time when such a
mutation was unheard of.
A voice unheard
Cuenot’s pioneering work has
afforded him little recognition to
this day.
William Bateson, the man
credited the “one gene one enzyme”
hypothesis never recognized
Cuenot's discovery that certain
traits arose due to the presence
or absence of an enzyme.
Archibald Garrod suggested in
the early part of the 20th century
that certain diseases occurred in
the absence of an essential enzyme
in a biochemical pathway and that
these diseases were inherited as
Mendelian recessives. Garrod
failed to mention Cuenot in his
work. At this time, there was
widespread difficulty with
reconciling genetics and
biochemistry.
However Cuenot is in some ways
responsible for his lack of
acknowledgment. The symbolism he
used in experiments described
phenotype rather than
genotype and were quite
confusing. (Today’s crosses are
described in terms of genotype).
His studies on mice were also cut
short when German troops invaded
the town of Nancy, where he kept
his mouse colony. After the war he
never returned to his studies on
mice and settled for the less
controversial subjects of
zoology and
physiology.
