The cellnucleus was discovered by Robert Brown, a botanist in 1828.
It was found to bethe control centre for the cell and it organelles. Robert Brown invented hisown microscope with a system of lenses. He used the microscope to observe thenucleus of a plant cell. It was discovered when he was trying to find out howplants reproduce. He observed that the spot was not limited to the epidermis asit could also be observed during the early stage of pollen formation.
He notedthat this spot was a key component of cells and called them the nucleus. AlthoughRobert is universally acknowledged as being the discoverer of the cell nucleus,he also gave credit to Franz Bauer who was a recent botanist at the time andhad made similar observations in which he made a drawing of where the nucleuswas to be located in the cell.Robert Brown made one other important contributionto science, the finding of looking at pollen grains suspended in water but hecould not understand why. It was then confirmed by Einstein in 1905. He providedan explanation that the pollen was moving due to interaction with invisible watermolecules.
Geneticsfirst began with the research conducted by Gregor Mendel. He performed several experimentswith pea plants to demonstrate that characteristic traits inherited by theseplants followed certain patterns.In 1866, Ernst Haeckel described the nucleusas the centre for passing on elements that determine hereditary characteristicsin Mendel’s work. Then fellow scientist August Weismann found that gametes weredifferent from somatic cells. He also suggested that the nucleus is the centrewhere the genetic material that is responsible for heredity lies. He stated whenthe sperm and the egg join in fertilisation, a new combination of chromosomesis formed.
Eduoard van Beneden described the process of meiosis producing gametescontaining 23 chromosomes.Walther Flemming deduced the sequence of chromosomemovements during mitosis. These were later confirmed by microscopy of livedividing cells.
Walther also made the important observation that chromosomessplit along their length during mitosis and he correctly hypothesised that thesplit chromosomes were partitioned into different daughter cells at the end of mitosis.Therefore Flemming recognised that chromosomal movement during mitosis offereda mechanism for the distribution of nuclear material during cell division. Thislead to the discovery of hereditary mechanisms.
