Stefan Kopec

Stefan Kopeć (January 22, 1888 – March 11, 1941[1]) was a Polish biologist and pioneer of insect endocrinology, who studied at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He received his PhD there in 1912, and worked at Puławy Agricultural Research Station in Poland between 1915 and 1920. In 1929 he was made director of the institute.[2] Between 1908 and 1927, Kopec published at least 17 papers, in Polish, English and German, on insect endocrinology in various professional journals.[2]

Biography

Kopeć began his studies of the moulting of insects with Lymantria dispar [3] from specimens caught in the wild.[4] His subsequent scientific activities helped determine the role of the insect brain in hormone production. He was the earliest researcher to understand the importance of the insect brain, as is demonstrated by his statement in a 1917 paper:

For the normal process of metamorphosis the presence of the brain, at least up to a certain moment, is indispensable...[2]

Kopec's most significant contribution was his study of neurosecretory cells in the brains of insects which secrete a crucial growth hormone, prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH), which regulates the process of metamorphosis (ecdysteroidogenesis).[5][6] He observed that nervous tissue could behave like an endocrine gland. This discovery stimulated further scientific research leading to the establishment of the field of science known as neuroendocrinology.[7][8] Kopec's work was cut short due to his arrest by the Gestapo in 1940 together with his daughter Maria and son Stanislaw in an action against the Polish underground university. He was imprisoned at the Pawiak Prison in Warsaw and executed by the Germans in 1941 at Palmiry,[1] near Warsaw, together with his son as a reprisal against an action of the Polish underground army, as a part of the German AB-Aktion in Poland.

The University of Wrocław named its annual International Conference on Arthropods the Stefan Kopeć Memorial Conference in Kopec's honor.[9]

Bibliography
  • Kopeć, Stefan (1922). "Mutual relationship in the development of the brain and eyes of lepidoptera". Journal of Experimental Zoology. 36 (4): 458–467. doi:10.1002/jez.1400360405.
  • Kopeć, Stefan (1924). "On the Heterogeneous Influence of Starvation of Male and of Female Insects on Their Offspring". Biological Bulletin. 46 (1): 22–34. doi:10.2307/1536517. JSTOR 1536517.
  • Kopeć, Stefan (1923). "The influence of the nervous system on the development and regeneration of muscles and integument in insects". Journal of Experimental Zoology. 37: 14–25. doi:10.1002/jez.1400370103.
  • Kopeć, Stefan (1922). "Studies on the Necessity of the Brain for the Inception of Insect Metamorphosis". Biological Bulletin. 42 (6): 323–342. doi:10.2307/1536759. JSTOR 1536759.
  • Kopeć, Stefan (1923). "On the offspring of rabbit-does mated with two sires simultaneously". Journal of Genetics. 13 (3): 371–382. doi:10.1007/BF02983070. S2CID 20739576.
  • Kopeć, Stefan (1922). "Physiological self-differentiation of the wing-germs grafted on caterpillars of the opposite sex". Journal of Experimental Zoology. 36 (4): 468–475. doi:10.1002/jez.1400360406.
  • Kopeć, Stefan (1926). "Is the Insect Metamorphosis Influenced by Thyroid Feeding?". Biological Bulletin. 50 (4): 339–354. doi:10.2307/1536468. JSTOR 1536468.
  • Experiments on the dependence of the nuptial hue on the gonads in fish Biologia Generalis, 1927[10]
  • Kopeć, Stefan (1924). "Studies on the Influence of Inanition on the Development and the Duration of Life in Insects". Biological Bulletin. 46 (1): 1–21. doi:10.2307/1536516. JSTOR 1536516.
  • Kopeć, Stefan; Greenwood, Alan W (1930). "The effect of yolk injections on the plumage of an ovariotomised brown leghron hen". Wilhelm Roux' Archiv für Entwicklungsmechanik der Organismen. 121 (1–2): 87–95. doi:10.1007/BF00644945. PMID 28353827. S2CID 6897019.

See also

entomology

References
  1. M. Manowski, (Bartoszewski [Warsaw 1970] et al) Palmira. M. Manowski. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
  2. Sláma, Karel, Insect Endocrinology: A Tribute to Stefan Kopeć, from Historical figures in Insect Physiology, University of California, Riverside, retrieved 2011-10-07. This article originally appeared on pages 11-15 of Insects, Chemical, physiological and environmental aspects, Wydawnictwo Univwersytetu Wrocławskiego, ed. By Danuta Konopińska, University of Wrocław, 1995.
  3. Albert Rosenfeld books.google.co.uk LIFE 6 Oct 1958 (magazine) [Retrieved 2011-12-18]
  4. Fahrbach, Susan E; Mesce, Karen A (2005). "'Neuroethoendocrinology': Integration of field and laboratory studies in insect neuroendocrinology". Hormones and Behavior. 48 (4): 352–359. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2005.04.010. PMID 15950975. S2CID 29763890.
  5. Karlson, P (1996). "On the hormonal control of insect metamorphosis. A historical review". The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 40 (1): 93–6. PMID 8735917.
  6. Marchal, Elisabeth; Vandersmissen, Hans Peter; Badisco, Liesbeth; Van De Velde, Sandrien; Verlinden, Heleen; Iga, Masatoshi; Van Wielendaele, Pieter; Huybrechts, Roger; Simonet, Gert; Smagghe, Guy; Vanden Broeck, Jozef (2010). "Control of ecdysteroidogenesis in prothoracic glands of insects: A review". Peptides. 31 (3): 506–519. doi:10.1016/j.peptides.2009.08.020. PMID 19723550. S2CID 8107666.
  7. Litwack, Gerald (2005-12-19). Insect Hormones. ISBN 9780127098739.
  8. Capinera, John L (2008-08-11). Encyclopedia of Entomology. ISBN 9781402062421.
  9. Welcome to VII-th International Conference
  10. scholar.google.com [Retrieved 2011-12-18]
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