From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
A.G. Avery was best
known for his work in the field of
botany/plant genetics, much of
which was conducted along with
plant geneticist Dr. Blakeslee.
Life and work
Amos G. Avery was born in 1902,
died in 1998 and was active almost
to the end of his 96 years. He was
a Professor of Botany at Amherst
College and also worked as a
botanist at the Biological
Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor
and at The Botanic Garden of Smith
College.
[1] He worked closely with the
botanist and plant geneticist
Dr. Blakeslee, whose research
career yielded a number of major
contributions in the field of
biology, and particularly in
genetics. They worked together at
Cold Spring Harbor, where for a
spell Blakeslee spent his summers
as an assistant in Botany. Avery
was also an associate of
Blakeslee’s at Smith college from
1926-1954.
[2] Together they published
many papers on
botany and
plant genetics, including:
1934. With A.G. Avery. Three
Genes located in the 21• 22
Chromosome of the Jimson Weed.
Jour. Hered.,25:393-404.
1937. With A. G. Avery and A.D.
Berger. Geographical Distribution
of Chromosomal Prime Types in
Datura stramoniun. Cytologia.
Fujii Jubilee Vol., pp. 1070-93.
1937. With A.G. Avery. Methods
of Inducing doubling of
Chromosomes in Plants. Jour. Hered.,
28: 393-411.
1938. With A.G. Avery.
Fifteen-year Breeding Records of
2n+I Types in Datura stramoniun.
Carnegie Inst. Washington Publ.
501, pp. 315-51.
1941. With A. G. Avery. A White
Flowered Race of Datura
Which is Genetically Distinct from
Similar White Races in Nature.
Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 27:512-18.
In 1959 they conducted
important research together on
Aneuploidy in Datura
plants, and published a number of
papers on the subject.
Significance of work
Avery’s work in the field of
plant genetics, with particular
reference to chromosomal
abnormalities, had important
implications for scientists of the
proceeding years. In their work on
aneuploidy, Avery and Blakeslee
demonstrated that not only does
Datura stramonium (Thorn
apple; n = 12) tolerate the
unbalanced chromosomal state of
having a single additional
chromosome (a state known as
trisomy), but trisomies of
every single chromosome of the set
leads to abnormal changes in the
shape of the fruit that are
typical for the respective
chromosome. Since their work in
the early-mid 20th century,
trisomic plant mutants have been
found and characterized in nearly
all cultivated species.
[3] They have important
implications for
plant breeding, and specific
chromosome doublings can now be
chemically induced.
