Quantitative and molecular genetics, a love story

摘要

Once upon a time, in research centres, universities and breeding companies around the world, there lived two types of scientists, the quantitative geneticist and the molecular geneticist ... Animal breeding based on the mating of animals of excellentphenotypes has been practiced for many centuries but major advances in animal breeding occurred with the development of BLUP. Although largely unappreciated at the time, Gregor Mendel is credited with providing the genetic understanding of heredity in 1866. DNA was sequenced for the first time in 1977 and in 2001 the first draft of the human genome was released with the first draft of the bovine genome being publicly available in 2006. Throughout this period both disciplines more or less pursued their own paths, each oblivious to the developing love story.