Punnett, Reginald Crundall

(born June 20, 1875, Tonbridge, Kent, Eng.—died Jan. 3, 1967, Bilbrook, Somerset) British geneticist.

Through contact with William Bateson he came to support the theories of Gregor Mendel, and in 1905 he published the first textbook on Mendelian genetics. Using poultry and sweet peas, Punnett and Bateson discovered some of the fundamental processes of Mendelian genetics, including linkage, sex determination, sex linkage, and the first example of nonsexual chromosome linkage. Punnett demonstrated the value of using sex-linked plumage-colour factors to distinguish male from female chickens, making possible early identification of the less valuable males, a process now known as autosexing.