Who discovered meiosis?
Meiosis is a vital process that takes place in eukaryotes, resulting in the formation of
haploid gametes from diploid cells. It was first discovered and described by the
German biologist Oscar Hertwig in 1876. Hertwig was the first to observe meiosis in
sea urchin eggs using light microscopy. Later, in 1883, the Belgian cytologist
Edouard Van Beneden independently discovered meiosis in the gametes of
roundworms.
Van Beneden was the first to systematically describe the process of meiosis,
including the division of chromosomes and the formation of haploid gametes. His
work was groundbreaking, as it demonstrated that the number of chromosomes in
gametes was half that of the parent cell, and that meiosis was a universal process in
sexually reproducing organisms.
In the years following Van Beneden's discovery, many other scientists contributed to
the understanding of meiosis, including Thomas Hunt Morgan, who discovered
chromosomal inheritance in Drosophila, and Nettie Stevens, who observed the sex
chromosomes in beetles.
Today, meiosis is a well-understood process, and its importance in genetic diversity
and inheritance is widely recognized. It has applications in fields such as breeding,
biotechnology, and medicine, and continues to be an active area of research.
References:
- Alberts, B., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Morgan, D., Raff, M., Roberts, K., & Walter, P. (2015).
Molecular Biology of the Cell. Garland Science.
- Van Beneden, E. (1883). La maturation de l'oeuf, la fécondation et les premières phases
du développement embryonnaire des vertébrés. Mémoires couronnés et autres mémoires,
Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique.