Georgii Karpechenko Explained

Georgii Dmitrievich Karpechenko
Birth Date:	21 April (3 May) 1899
Birth Place:	Velsk, Vologda Governorate, Russian Empire
Death Place:	Firing range "Kommunarka", Moscow Oblast, USSR

Georgii Dmitrievich Karpechenko, sometimes Karpetschenko (Russian: Георгий Дмитриевич Карпеченко; 21 April 1899 – 28 July 1941) was a Russian and Soviet biologist.^[1]

G. D. Karpechenko specialized in plant cytology and created several hybrids. Among his contributions is his seminal work on allopolyploids, culminating in his creation of a fertile offspring of radishes and cabbages, the first instance of a new species obtained through polyploid speciation during experimental crossbreeding.^{[2] [3] [4]}

He worked at the Institute of Applied Botany near Leningrad, but collaborated with geneticists in other countries, notably Øjvind Winge in Denmark and Erwin Baur in Germany.^[5] He also travelled abroad to the John Innes Horticultural Institution in London.^[5] He was arrested by the NKVD under the false grounds of belonging to an alleged "anti-Soviet group" centered on the well known Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov who was his colleague at Leningrad. He was sentenced to death and executed on 28 July 1941.

See also

• List of Russian inventors

Notes

1. Karpetschenko, G.D. (1929). Konstantwerden von Art- und Gattungsbastarden durch Verdoppelung der Chromosomenkomplexe. Der Züchter. 5: 133–140. German abstract available
2. Griffiths AJF, Gelbart WM, Miller JH, et al. 1999. Modern Genetic Analysis New York: W. H. Freeman; extract available
3. Web site: BIO | Time Line . 2010-02-11 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100212001915/http://bio.org/speeches/pubs/er/timeline.asp . 2010-02-12 . A biotechnology timeline from Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade association.
4. Web site: Archived copy . 2007-08-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20040814160329/http://article.pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ppv/RPViewDoc?_handler_=HandleInitialGet . 2004-08-14 . Wang, Y., Scarth, R. and Campbell, C. 2005. Interspecific hybridization between diploid Fagopyrum esculentum and tetraploid F. homotropicum. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 85: 41–48 (includes a description of Karpechenko's results).
5. Karpechenko, G.D., 1927. The production of polyploid gametes in hybrids. Hereditas 9, 349–368.

References

• Birstein, Vadim J. The Perversion of Knowledge: The True Story of Soviet Science. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2001.
• Bentley Glass, The Grim Heritage of Lysenkoism, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 65, No. 4 (December, 1990), pp. 413–421, refers to "Karpechenko's defense of genetics when it was first assailed by Lysenko",
• Karpechenko, G.D., Polyploid hybrids of Raphanus sativus X Brassica oleracea L., Bulletin of Applied Botany. 17:305-408 (1927).
• Karpechenko, G.D., 1928. Polyploid hybrids of Raphanus sativus L. X Brassica oleracea L. Zeitschrift für induktive Abstammungs- und Vererbungslehre 48, 1–85.
  Reprinted in: Jules Janick, ed. 1989. Classic papers in horticultural science. The Blackburn Press. Publisher's listing