Martinus Beijerinck | |
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| Born | Martinus Willem Beijerinck 16 March 1851 (1851-03-16) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Died | 1 January 1931 (1931-02) (aged 79) |
| Alma mater | Leiden University |
| Known for | One of the founders ofvirology,environmental microbiology andgeneral microbiology Conceptual discovery ofvirus (tobacco mosaic virus) Enrichment culture Biological nitrogen fixation Sulfate-reducing bacteria Nitrogen fixing bacteria Azotobacter (Azotobacter chroococcum) Rhizobium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans (Spirillum desulfuricans) |
| Awards | Leeuwenhoek Medal (1905) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Microbiology |
| Institutions | Wageningen University Delft School of Microbiology (founder) |
Martinus Willem Beijerinck (Dutch pronunciation:[mɑrˈtinʏsˈʋɪləmˈbɛiərɪŋk], 16 March 1851 – 1 January 1931) was a Dutchmicrobiologist andbotanist who was one of the founders ofvirology andenvironmental microbiology. He is credited with the co-discovery ofviruses (1898), which he called "contagium vivum fluidum".
Born inAmsterdam, Beijerinck studied at the Technical School of Delft, where he was awarded the degree of biology in 1872. He obtained his Doctor of Science degree from theUniversity of Leiden in 1877.[1]
At the time, Delft, then aPolytechnic, did not have the right to confer doctorates, so Leiden did this for them. He became a teacher in microbiology at the Agricultural School in Wageningen (nowWageningen University) and later at thePolytechnische Hogeschool Delft (Delft Polytechnic, currentlyDelft University of Technology) (from 1895). He established the Delft School of Microbiology. His studies of agricultural and industrial microbiology yielded fundamental discoveries in the field ofbiology. His achievements have been perhaps unfairly overshadowed by those of his contemporaries,Robert Koch andLouis Pasteur, because unlike them, Beijerinck never actually studied human disease.
In 1877, he wrote his first notable research paper, discussingplant galls. The paper later became the basis for his doctoral dissertation.[2]
In 1885 he became a member of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[3]
Beijerinck is considered one of the founders ofvirology.[4][5][6][7] In 1898, he published results on the filtration experiments demonstrating thattobacco mosaic disease is caused by an infectious agent smaller than abacterium.[8]
His results were in accordance with the similar observation made byDmitri Ivanovsky in 1892.[9] Like Ivanovsky before him andAdolf Mayer, predecessor at Wageningen, Beijerinck could not culture the filterable infectious agent; however, he concluded that the agent can replicate and multiply in living plants. He named the newpathogenvirus to indicate its non-bacterial nature. Beijerinck asserted that the virus was somewhat liquid in nature, calling it "contagium vivum fluidum" (contagious living fluid).[10] It was not until the first crystals of thetobacco mosaic virus (TMV) obtained byWendell Stanley in 1935, the first electron micrographs of TMV produced in 1939 and the firstX-ray crystallographic analysis of TMV performed in 1941 proved that the virus was particulate.
Nitrogen fixation,[11] the process by which diatomicnitrogen gas is converted toammonium ions and becomes available to plants, was also investigated by Beijerinck. Bacteria perform nitrogen fixation, dwelling insideroot nodules of certain plants (legumes). In addition to having discovered a biochemical reaction vital tosoil fertility andagriculture, Beijerinck revealed this archetypical example ofsymbiosis betweenplants andbacteria.
Beijerinck discovered the phenomenon of bacterialsulfate reduction, a form ofanaerobic respiration. He learned bacteria could use sulfate as a terminal electron acceptor, instead of oxygen. This discovery has had an important impact on our current understanding ofbiogeochemical cycles.Spirillum desulfuricans, now known asDesulfovibrio desulfuricans,[12] the first known sulfate-reducing bacterium, was isolated and described by Beijerinck.
Beijerinck invented theenrichment culture, a fundamental method of studyingmicrobes from the environment. He is often incorrectly credited with framing the microbial ecology idea that "everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects", which was stated byLourens Baas Becking.[13][14]
Beijerinck was a socially eccentric figure. He was verbally abusive to students, never married, and had few professional collaborations. He was also known for hisascetic lifestyle and his view of science and marriage being incompatible. His low popularity with his students and their parents periodically depressed him, as he very much loved spreading his enthusiasm for biology in the classroom. After his retirement at the Delft School of Microbiology in 1921, at age 70, he moved toGorssel where he lived for the rest of his life, together with his two sisters.[15]
Beijerinckia (a genus of bacteria),[16]Beijerinckiaceae (a family ofHyphomicrobiales), andBeijerinck crater are named after him.
TheM.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize (M.W. Beijerinck Virologie Prijs) is awarded in his honor.
Beijerinck asserted that the virus was liquid, but this theory was later disproved by Wendell Stanley, who demonstrated the particulate nature of viruses. Beijerinck, nevertheless, set the stage for twentieth-century virologists to uncover the secrets of viral pathogens now known to cause a wide range of plant and animal (including human) diseases
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