Albert Francis Blakeslee

Albert Francis Blakeslee (November 9, 1874 – November 16, 1954) was an American botanist. He is best known for his research on the poisonous jimsonweed plant and the sexuality of fungi. He was the brother of the Far East scholar George Hubbard Blakeslee, who had also studied in Germany at the University of Leipzig in 1902.

For the politician, see Albert P. Blakeslee.

Albert Francis Blakeslee
Albert Francis Blakeslee and Sophia A. Satina
BornNovember 9, 1874
Geneseo, New York
DiedNovember 16, 1954 (1954-11-17) (aged 80)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
Known forjimsonweed
Scientific career
Fieldsbotanist
InstitutionsCarnegie Institution
Author abbrev. (botany)Blakeslee

Born in Geneseo, New York, Blakeslee attended Wesleyan University, graduating in 1896. He received a master's degree from Harvard University in 1900 and a doctorate in 1904. He also studied at the University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany from 1904 to 1906.[1]

Datura, jimsonweed, research

Blakeslee used the jimsonweed plant as a model organism for his genetic research. His experiments included using colchicine to achieve an increase in the number of chromosomes, which opened up a new field of research,[2] creating artificial polyploids and aneuploids, and studying the phenotypic effects of polyploidy and of individual chromosomes.

Blakeslee was a leading figure in the genetics world in the decades before and after World War I. He worked with various plant and animal species, but finally decided on Datura. To farmers it was a stinking, noxious weed. In fact some people were seriously poisoned when they ate tomatoes grown from a scion that had been grafted onto a Jimson weed stock. But to Blakeslee Datura was “the very best plant with which to discover the principles of heredity.”[3]

Career

His first professorship was at the Connecticut Agricultural College, now known as the University of Connecticut. He was hired by the Carnegie Institution in 1915, eventually becoming its director. In 1941, he retired from the Carnegie Institution and returned to academia, accepting a professorship at Smith College. There he performed his research on jimsonweed.

Selected works
  • Blakeslee, Albert Francis (1904). "Sexual reproduction in the Mucorineae". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 40 (4): 203–328. doi:10.2307/20021962. JSTOR 20021962.
  • Blakeslee, A. F. (1904). "Zygospore formation a sexual process". Science. Series 2. 19 (492): 864–866. Bibcode:1904Sci....19..864B. doi:10.1126/science.19.492.864. PMID 17812855.
  • Blakeslee, A. F. (1905). "Two conidia-bearing fungi". Botanical Gazette. 40 (3): 161–170. doi:10.1086/328664. S2CID 84464925.
  • "Zygospore germinations in the Mucorinae". Annales Mycologici. 4 (1): 1–28. 1906.
  • Blakeslee, A. F. (1906). "Zygospores and sexual strains in the common bread mould, Rhizopus nigricans". Science. Series 2. 24 (604): 118–222. Bibcode:1906Sci....24..118B. doi:10.1126/science.24.604.118. PMID 17772189.
  • "New England trees in winter". Bulletin of the Storrs Experimental Station. 69: 307–578. 1911.
  • "Conjugation in the heterogamic genus Zygorhynchus". Mycologische Centralblatt. 2: 241–244, plates 1–2. 1913.
  • Trees in winter. Their study, planting, care and identification. New York: Macmillan Company. 1913.
  • Blakeslee, A.F.; Avery, B.T. (1919). "Mutations in the Jimson weed". Journal of Heredity. 10 (3): 111–120. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a101893.
  • Blakeslee, A.F.; Warmke, H.E. (1938). Size of Seed and Other Criteria of Polyploids.
  • Warmke, H.E.; Blakeslee, A.F. (1939). "Sex Mechanism In Polyploids Of Melandrium". Science. 89 (2313): 391–392. Bibcode:1939Sci....89..391W. doi:10.1126/science.89.2313.391. PMID 17742784.
  • Blakeslee, A.F. (1941). The Induction of Polyploids and Their Genetic Significance.

References
  1. Stafleu, F.A.; Cowan, R.S. (1976–1988). Taxonomic literature: A selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types. Second Edition. Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema and Holkema; Available online through Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
  2. Avery, A.G. (1959). Blakeslee: the genus Datura. New York: Ronald Press Co.
  3. Crow, J F (September 1997). "Birth defects, Jimson weeds and bell curves". Genetics. UNITED STATES. 147 (1): 1–6. ISSN 0016-6731. PMC 1208093. PMID 9286663.
  4. IPNI.  Blakeslee.
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