Journal of Heredity 2009 100(1):1; doi:10.1093/jhered/esn103
© The American Genetic Association. 2009. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.
Editorial
On the Origin of Journal of Heredity
This year (2009), we celebrate not only the 200
th birthday of
Charles Darwin and the 150
th anniversary of the publication
of "On the Origin of Species", but also publication of the 100
th volume of the
Journal of Heredity. First published as the
American Breeders Magazine by the American Breeders Association in 1910,
the journal changed its name to the
Journal of Heredity (volume
5) when the Society changed its name to the American Genetic
Association in 1914. The
Journal of Heredity is now the longest
continuously published journal devoted to the "new science"
that arose from Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's
discoveries of the laws of inheritance (
Fig 1). At its inception,
the
Journal sought to communicate the principles of heredity
to both plant and animal breeders, with an emphasis on practical
improvements. In its early years, the journal was inevitably
drawn into the debate over human breeding or eugenics and included
articles on this topic by David Starr Jordan, Alexander Graham
Bell, and Charles Davenport, among others. Members of the American
Genetic Association who have registered their subscription online
with My Account have full electronic access to the complete
archive of the
Journal of Heredity, including these early issues.
A perusal of this archive provides a unique perspective on advances
over the last 100 years in the science of genetics, as well
as changes in the emphasis of the American Genetic Association
and the role of science in society at large (Crow 2004). The
primary scope of the
Journal has evolved along with these advances,
shifting away from practical applications of plant, animal,
and human breeding, towards primary research in organismal genomics
and evolutionary diversity.
As part of the continuing evolution of the
Journal, we are pleased
to introduce a new category of articles, Invited Perspectives.
This issue includes an historical perspective on "Mendel's Search
for True-Breeding Hybrids" (Stansfield) and a contemporary perspective
on the role of mutations and standing genetic variation in adaptations,
or "Adaptations from Leaps in the Dark" (Woodruff and Zhang).
As part of this centenary celebration, we are also pleased to
provide free electronic access to all articles in the first
issue of volume 100, courtesy of Oxford University Press. These
include descriptions of the worldwide phylogeography of bottlenose
dolphins, the geographic origins of the avocado cultivars, the
stunningly low diversity of microsatellites in the Hawaiian
monk seals, and surprisingly restricted, pollen-mediated gene
flow among wild grapevines. Please read on to appreciate the
tremendous diversity of the
Journal's current scope, and to
consider the possibilities offered by the exploding growth in
genomics over the next decade and century.
C. Scott Baker
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References
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Crow JF. The Wilhemine E. Key 2003 Invitational Lecture: Genetics: Alive and Well. The First Hundred Years as Viewed Through the Pages of the Journal of Heredity. J Hered (2004) 95:365–374.[Free Full Text]
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