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Alice Elizabeth Gairdner

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British plant scientist, geneticist and cytologist

Alice Elizabeth Gairdner
Born1873
Died1954
NationalityBritish
Scientific career
FieldsBotany, genetics, cytology
InstitutionsJohn Innes Horticultural Institution

Alice Elizabeth Gairdner (1873–1954) was a British plant scientist, geneticist and cytologist.

Life

In the 1910s, Gairdner was associated with the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge and became one of William Bateson's Mendelian followers. In Cambridge she studied Tropaeolum (Nasturtium) and this work interested Bateson – he had numerous drawings and figures of Tropaeolum by Gairdner in his collection.

Gairdner joined the John Innes Horticultural Institution (now the John Innes Centre) in 1919 as a student, joining the so-called 'Ladies Lab' along with Caroline Pellew, Dorothea De Winton, Dorothy Cayley, Aslaug Sverdrup and Irma Andersson-Kottö. Gairdner investigated male sterility in flax, initially with Bateson, and continued the work after his death. In papers published in 1921 and 1929, they proposed that nuclear-cytoplasmic interactions may be causing the male sterility phenotype. Gairdner primarily worked with J. B. S. Haldane, who led the genetics research at the institution from 1927 to 1937, following Bateson's death in 1926. By 1929, Gairdner had been appointed as a "cytologist", as her work combined genetic analysis with microscopy. With Haldane, she studied the genetics of Antirrhinum, leading to the publication of two papers in 1929 and 1933 on the inheritance of two linked factors that could interact to produce a lethal phenotype. These papers indicate that Gairdner was solely responsible for the practical work (continuing crosses set up by her predecessor, Ida Sutton), and Haldane for the theoretical interpretation. She also studied Cleiranthus, and collaborated with Haldane and Rose Scott-Moncrieff in the investigation of pigmentation in the flowers. Gairdner also published several articles with Cyril Darlington describing chromosome pairing and ring formation during meiosis in Campanula. Gairdner presented the work on ring formation in Campanula at the Genetics Society meeting in 1936.

References

  1. ^ Richmond, Marsha L. (1 January 2015). "Women as Mendelians and Geneticists". Science & Education. 24 (1): 125–150. Bibcode:2015Sc&Ed..24..125R. doi:10.1007/s11191-013-9666-6. ISSN 1573-1901. S2CID 144712362.
  2. ^ Wilmot, Sarah (1 November 2017). "J. B. S. Haldane: the John Innes years". Journal of Genetics. 96 (5): 815–826. doi:10.1007/s12041-017-0830-7. ISSN 0973-7731. PMID 29237891. S2CID 39998560.
  3. "William Bateson Archive". The John Innes Centre Archive.
  4. Bateson, W.; Gairdner, A. E. (1 December 1921). "Male-Sterility in flax, subject to two types of segregation". Journal of Genetics. 11 (3): 269–275. doi:10.1007/BF02983063. ISSN 0022-1333. S2CID 20551415.
  5. Gairdner, Alice E. (1 April 1929). "Male-sterility in flax. II. A case of reciprocal crosses differing inF2". Journal of Genetics. 21 (1): 117–124. doi:10.1007/BF02983363. ISSN 0022-1333. S2CID 34067765.
  6. Gairdner, A. E.; Haldane, J. B. S. (1 December 1929). "A Case of balanced lethal factors inantirrhinum majus". Journal of Genetics. 21 (3): 315–325. doi:10.1007/BF02984210. ISSN 0022-1333. S2CID 11432736.
  7. Gairdner, A. E.; Haldane, J. B. S. (1 May 1933). "A case of balanced lethal factors inAntirrhinum majus. II". Journal of Genetics. 27 (2): 287–291. doi:10.1007/BF02984418. ISSN 0022-1333. S2CID 45897607.
  8. Gairdner, A. E. (1 July 1936). "The inheritance of factors in Cheiranthus Cheiri". Journal of Genetics. 32 (3): 479–486. doi:10.1007/BF02982528. ISSN 0022-1333. S2CID 40089467.
  9. Scott-Moncrieff, Rose (1 February 1936). "A biochemical survey of some mendelian factors for flower colour". Journal of Genetics. 32 (1): 117–170. doi:10.1007/BF02982506. ISSN 0022-1333. S2CID 41254258.
  10. Gairdner, Alice E.; Darlington, C. D. (1930). "Structural Variation in the Chromosomes of Campanula persicifolia". Nature. 125 (3142): 87–88. Bibcode:1930Natur.125...87G. doi:10.1038/125087a0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 3998227.
  11. Gairdner, A. E.; Darlington, C. D. (1 January 1931). "Ring-formation in diploid and polyploid campanula persicifolia". Genetica. 13 (1): 113–150. doi:10.1007/BF01725041. ISSN 1573-6857. S2CID 46038680.
  12. "The Genetics Society [formerly The Genetical Society] programme of meetings". The John Innes Centre Archive.
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