From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Peter Michaelis
Peter Michaelis
Peter Michaelis was a German plant geneticist who fo- Michaelis firmly believed in complex unity in the cy-
cused most of his research on cytoplasm inheritance and toplasm, but he rejected simplistic notions such as the
segregation. Most of Michaelis work was carried out dur- plasma gene or that the cause of cytoplasmic inheritance
ing the period from 1940’s to 1970’s at the Max Planck In- was solely due to plastids and mitochondria.
stitute for Plant Breeding Research in Köln/Vogelsang.
Summary
Research Peter Michaelis’s work contributed largely to the devel-
Michaelis worked primarily on the inheritance and seg- opment and understanding of organelle inheritance in
regation of cytoplasmic mutations in Epilobium, a genus Epilobium and other plants with two or more chloroplasts
related to Oenothera. He calculated in 1955/1956 the sta- per cell.
tistical probability of the segregation of two different
types of plastids under different conditions. With further
research Michaelis concluded that segregation of a mu-
References
tant plastid could be the only cause of the observed var- • Michaelis, P () Interactions between genes and
iegation in the species. cytoplasm in Epilobium. Cold Spring Harb Symp
After this Michaelis examined thirty cases of plastid 16:121-129.
Quant Biol. 16
variegation where no mixed cells were found. He pro- • Michaelis, P () Cytoplasmic inheritance in Epilobium
posed that mutant and non-mutant plastids were still and its theoretical significance. Adv Genet 6:288–402.
segregating in early mitotic divisions. He suggested two • Michaelis, P () Cytoplasmic inheritance and the
possible ways the plastid could influence one another: segregation of plasmagenes. X. International Congr.
(1) The mutant plastid might manufacture a substance Genet. I. 375-385
that damaged the normal plastids during the maturation • Michaelis, P () The proof of cytoplasmic inheritance
process. (2) The normal plastid might manufacture a sub- in Epilobium (a historical survey as an example for
stance that would allow the mutant form to develop nor- the necessary proceeding). Nucleus 9:1-16
mally. • Michaelis, P () The investigation of plasmone
Theory predicted that the two types could be distin- 10:
segregation by the pattern-analysis. Nucleus 10 1-14
guished clearly by an examination of the distribution of
mutant and normal cells. Michealis found clear examples
of both types of mutation in his material and published
External links
his work in 1956. • www.mpg.de
• www.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de
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Categories:
• Geneticists
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