The introduction of Mendelism in Iceland

• Main Author: Steindór J. Erlingsson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Key words; animal breeding; history of genetics; Mendel; Mendelism; Páll Zóphóníasson; pure lines; Wilhelm Johannsen; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.582.8613; http://www.landbunadur.is/landbunadur/wgsamvef.nsf/d7902c93776cd15300256abe00557fcc/5edc72f75c8b6c8700256de20037948a/$FILE/bu13-sje.pdf

This paper analyzes the development of the theoretical rules at the basis of the breeding programs in Ice-land from 1900 until the 1930s. This development was closely tied to the establishment of breeding so-cieties in Iceland, and the introduction of a breeding method based on best yield calculations which was imported to Iceland from Denmark and England (optimization calculation in modern parlance). In the first decades of the 20th-century breeding was pre-Mendelian; the practitioners did not understand the he-redity of characters as was made possible with Mendel’s laws. In 1905 the first attempt was made at introducing Mendelism to Iceland with the publication of the book called Heritability and Breeding (Ætt-gengi og Kynbætur). It completely failed. A decade later a somewhat more successful attempt was made by the agronomist Páll Zóphóníasson. He tried to introduce the practical aspect of Mendelism to Ice-landic farmers/breeders. He persisted in his efforts, but it was difficult to persuade them of the virtues of the Mendelian methodology. Zóphóníasson published the results of his own research based on Mendelian genetics in 1930 and 1934 which were noticed abroad, e.g., by the geneticists William E. Castle and Otto Lous Mohr. What characterizes this story is that Iceland neither had University based training or research in genetics, nor were there any institutions in that field. The history of animal genetics in Iceland in this period is the story of individuals trying to introduce novel ideas into a society where little had been