Barbara McClintock was born in nineteen-oh-two in Hartford, Connecticut. Barbara was the third of four children. Her family moved to the Brooklyn area of New York City in nineteen-oh-eight. Barbara was an active child with interests in sports and music.
She also developed an interest in science. Barbara was among a small number of undergraduate students to receive training in genetics in nineteen twenty-one. Years later, she noted that few college students wanted to study genetics.
In the early nineteen twenties, genetics had not received widespread acceptance as a subject. Only twenty years had passed since scientists rediscovered the theories of heredity. Gregor Mendel proposed these ideas after completing a series of experiments with plants.
His experiments helped scientists better understand how genes operate. They showed how genetic qualities are passed to living things from their ancestors. Barbara McClintock decided to study botany, the scientific study of plants, at Cornell University. She completed her undergraduate studies in nineteen twenty-three. McClintock decided to continue her education at Cornell. Two years later, she finished all her requirements for a doctorate degree.
In the late nineteen twenties, McClintock joined several other students in a group that studied genetics. The students included a future winner of the Nobel Prize, George Beadle. Another was Marcus Rhoades. Years later, he would become a leading expert in genetics. McClintock said both men recognized the importance of exploring the connection between genes and chromosomes.
McClintock stayed at Cornell after she completed her education. She taught students botany. She also supervised genetic studies of the corn plant, or maize. She studied chromosomes, which are lines of genes. Plant transposable elements: where genetics meets genomics.
Nature Reviews Genetics 3, All rights reserved. Expression of Ds in Maize. McClintock and the Theory of Epigenetics. Beyond her discovery of TEs and her revolutionary cytogenetic research techniques, Barbara McClintock was also the first scientist to correctly speculate on the basic concept of epigenetics-or heritable changes in gene expression that are not caused by changes to DNA sequences.
Mainly, she recognized that genes can be expressed and silenced during mitosis in genetically identical cells. McClintock proposed this theory before the molecular structure of DNA and more than 40 years before the concept of epigenetics was formally studied, thereby further cementing her reputation as an innovator in her field.
Barbara McClintock's discovery of transposable elements in Zea mays changed the way scientists think about genetic patterns of inheritance. Although not widely accepted at the time of its discovery, McClintock's observation of the behavior of kernel color alleles was revolutionary in its proposition that genomic replication does not always follow a consistent pattern. Indeed, as a result of both autonomous and activator-controlled transposition at different stages of seed development, the genes of maize kernels are capable of producing a variety of coloration patterns.
Today, McClintock is also recognized for her groundbreaking cytogenetic techniques, as well as her early speculations on the concept of epigenetics. Thanks to these and other valuable contributions to the field, Barbara McClintock is rightly viewed as one of the pioneering figures in modern genetics. References and Recommended Reading Coe, E. Article History Close. Share Cancel.
Revoke Cancel. Keywords Keywords for this Article. Save Cancel. Flag Inappropriate The Content is: Objectionable. Flag Content Cancel. Email your Friend. Submit Cancel.
This content is currently under construction. Explore This Subject. Applications in Biotechnology. DNA Replication. Jumping Genes. Discovery of Genetic Material. Gene Copies. No topic rooms are there. Or Browse Visually. In , she became first woman to be elected president of the Genetics Society of America. In , she became one of the first scientists to receive the MacArthur Foundation Grant, commonly known as the "Genius Grant. During the ceremony Nixon said: "I have read [explanations of your scientific work] and I want you to know that I do not understand them.
That, to me, is the nature of science. McClintock published her revolutionary data in , but, after facing skepticism from the scientific community, she decided to stop presenting her findings. During this period, she served as a mentor to young scientists interested in studying maize genetics.
These new findings sparked a renewed interest in, and appreciation for, her work.
0コメント