A.G. Avery

From Freepedia

A.G. Avery was best known for his work in the field of botany/plant genetics, much of which was conducted along with plant geneticist Dr. Blakeslee.

Life and work

Amos G. Avery was born in 1902, died in 1998 and was active almost to the end of his 96 years. He was a Professor of Botany at Amherst College and also worked as a botanist at the Biological Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor and at The Botanic Garden of Smith College. [1] He worked closely with the botanist and plant geneticist Dr. Blakeslee, whose research career yielded a number of major contributions in the field of biology, and particularly in genetics. They worked together at Cold Spring Harbor, where for a spell Blakeslee spent his summers as an assistant in Botany. Avery was also an associate of Blakeslee’s at Smith college from 1926-1954. [2] Together they published many papers on botany and plant genetics, including:

1934. With A.G. Avery. Three Genes located in the 21• 22 Chromosome of the Jimson Weed. Jour. Hered.,25:393-404.

1937. With A. G. Avery and A.D. Berger. Geographical Distribution of Chromosomal Prime Types in Datura stramoniun. Cytologia. Fujii Jubilee Vol., pp. 1070-93.

1937. With A.G. Avery. Methods of Inducing doubling of Chromosomes in Plants. Jour. Hered., 28: 393-411.

1938. With A.G. Avery. Fifteen-year Breeding Records of 2n+I Types in Datura stramoniun. Carnegie Inst. Washington Publ. 501, pp. 315-51.

1941. With A. G. Avery. A White Flowered Race of Datura Which is Genetically Distinct from Similar White Races in Nature. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 27:512-18.

In 1959 they conducted important research together on Aneuploidy in Datura plants, and published a number of papers on the subject.


Significance of work

Avery’s work in the field of plant genetics, with particular reference to chromosomal abnormalities, had important implications for scientists of the proceeding years. In their work on aneuploidy, Avery and Blakeslee demonstrated that not only does Datura stramonium (Thorn apple; n = 12) tolerate the unbalanced chromosomal state of having a single additional chromosome (a state known as trisomy), but trisomies of every single chromosome of the set leads to abnormal changes in the shape of the fruit that are typical for the respective chromosome. Since their work in the early-mid 20th century, trisomic plant mutants have been found and characterized in nearly all cultivated species. [3] They have important implications for plant breeding, and specific chromosome doublings can now be chemically induced.


References

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