- Pontecorvo, Guido
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born Nov. 29, 1907, Pisa, Italydied Sept. 24, 1999, near Zermatt, Switz.Italian-born British geneticist.In 1938, influenced by Hermann Joseph Muller, he designed a method for studying genetic differences among species that usually produce sterile hybrids when interbred. His technique permitted him to study evolutionary divergence in the fruit fly. His conviction that research in microbial genetics could lead to increased production of penicillin, much needed in World War II, led him to the genetics of fungi, and in 1950 he found that recombination of genes can occur in the fungus Aspergillus nidulans without sexual reproduction. Nonsexual gene recombination became a useful technique in exploring the nature of gene action.
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▪ 2000Italian geneticist (b. Nov. 29, 1907, Pisa, Italy—d. Sept. 24, 1999, Zermatt, Switz.), discovered the process of nonsexual gene recombination in the fungus Aspergillus nidulans and applied it as a laboratory technique to achieve a new, more detailed understanding of how genes affect growth and development. Pontecorvo earned a degree (1928) in agriculture from the University of Pisa and took a job in Florence at the Agricultural Inspectorate for the province of Tuscany in 1930. He fled fascist Italy in 1938, landing in Edinburgh, where he studied animal genetics. In 1940 he was deported to Canada as a potential alien enemy, but the ship that carried him, the Arandora Star, was sunk by a German submarine, and Pontecorvo was one of the few survivors. Shortly thereafter, he was allowed to return to Edinburgh, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1941, and then moved to Glasgow, Scot. There he took a post as a lecturer in the zoology department at the University of Glasgow. It was at the university that Pontecorvo began to study Aspergillus nidulans in an attempt to establish a means of analyzing genes at the chemical level. His work led to revolutionary practices that later became standard procedure in genetic research. In 1968 he took a post at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, where he was instrumental in fostering genetic-based cancer research until his retirement in 1975. He also served as a visiting professor at a number of U.S. and European universities. Pontecorvo was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1955 and received its Darwin Medal in 1978.* * *
▪ Italian geneticistborn Nov. 29, 1907, Pisa, Italydied Sept. 24, 1999, near Zermatt, Switz.Italian geneticist (genetics) who discovered the process of genetic recombination in the fungus Aspergillus.Pontecorvo was educated at the universities of Pisa (doctorate in agricultural sciences, 1928), Edinburgh (Ph.D., 1941), and Leicester (D.Sc., 1968). While at Edinburgh he worked with the American geneticist Hermann Muller (Muller, Hermann Joseph); under Muller's influence Pontecorvo designed a method for studying genetic differences among species that ordinarily produce sterile hybrids when interbred. That method permitted him to study evolutionary divergence in the fruit fly Drosophila. The conviction that research in microbial genetics could lead to increased production of the drug penicillin, much needed in World War II, led him in 1943 to the genetics of fungi. In 1950 he found that recombination of genes can occur in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans without sexual reproduction. Nonsexual gene recombination became a useful technique in probing the nature of gene action.Pontecorvo was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1946) and the Royal Society of London (1955). He received honorary degrees from several universities, and he was awarded the Hansen Foundation prize for microbiology (1961) and the Royal Society's Darwin Medal (1978). Pontecorvo was appointed to the first chair of genetics at the University of Glasgow in 1955 after serving for 10 years as the head of that university's newly created genetics department. In 1968 he moved to London to work at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories, where he remained until his retirement in 1975.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
