Hans Winkler
German botanist (1877–1945)
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Hans Karl Albert Winkler (23 April 1877 in Oschatz – 22 November 1945 in Wachwitz, Dresden)[1] was a German botanist. From 1912 on, he was Professor of Botany at the University of Hamburg, and a director of that university's Institute of Botany. Winkler coined the term 'heteroploidy' in 1916. He is remembered for coining the term 'genome' in 1920,[2] by making a portmanteau of the words gene and chromosome.[3] He wrote:[2]: 165
Ich schlage vor, für den haploiden Chromosomensatz, der im Verein mit dem zugehörigen Protoplasma die materielle Grundlage der systematischen Einheit darstellt den Ausdruck: das Genom zu verwenden ...
This may be translated as: "I propose the expression Genom for the haploid chromosome set, which, together with the pertinent protoplasm, specifies the material foundations of the species ..."[4] Among his experiments was the discovery of chimeras (also chimaeras) by grafting a black Nightshade and tomato plant and observing a shoot which displayed characteristics of both plants.
Winkler also worked at the University of Naples, in Italy, where he researched the physiology of the alga Bryopsis.[5]
In 1903/04, he traveled around the world, visiting Ceylon, Java, Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and North America and later Borneo in 1924/25.[1]
Apomixis, the process of asexual reproduction through seed without fertilization, was coined and defined by Hans Winkler in 1908. [6]
Works
- "Solanum Tubingense, ein echter Pfropfbastard zwischen Tomate und Nachtschatten". Bericht der Deutschen Botanik Gesellschaft (26a). 1908.
- "Verbreitung und Ursache der Parthenogenesis im Pflanzen- und Tierreiche. 1920 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- "Experimentelle Erzeugung von Pflanzen mit abweichenden Chromosomenzahlen". Zeitschrift für Botanik (8). 1916.
- "Die Konversion der Gene" (1930)
