Article ID: CBB766326866

Remembering Our Forebears: Albert Jan Kluyver and the Unity of Life (2017)

unapi

The Dutch microbiologist/biochemist Albert Jan Kluyver (1888–1956) was an early proponent of the idea of biochemical unity, and how that concept might be demonstrated through the careful study of microbial life. The fundamental relatedness of living systems is an obvious correlate of the theory of evolution, and modern attempts to construct phylogenetic schemes support this relatedness through comparison of genomes. The approach of Kluyver and his scientific descendants predated the tools of modern molecular biology by decades. Kluyver himself is poorly recognized today, yet his influence at the time was profound. Through lens of today however, it has been argued that the focus by Kluyver and others to create taxonomic and phylogenetic schemes using morphology and biochemistry distorted and hindered progress of the discipline of microbiology, because of a perception that the older approaches focused too much on a reductionist worldview. This essay argues that in contrast the careful characterization of fundamental microbial metabolism and physiology by Kluyver made many of the advances of the latter part of the twentieth century possible, by offering a framework which in many respects anticipated our current view of phylogeny, and by directly and indirectly training a generation of scientists who became leaders in the explosive growth of biotechnology.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB766326866/

Similar Citations

Article Rivers, Singleton, Jr.; (2000)
From Bacteriology to Biochemistry: Albert Jan Kluyver and Chester Werkman at Iowa State (/isis/citation/CBB000111925/)

Article Carlos Ramírez; (2022)
Lipids, Chloroform, and Their Intertwined Histories (/isis/citation/CBB384618008/)

Article Deichmann, Ute; (2009)
Chemistry and the Engineering of Life around 1900: Research and Reflections by Jacques Loeb (/isis/citation/CBB001230120/)

Article Johnstone, Rose; (2003)
A Sixty-Year Evolution of Biochemistry at McGill University (/isis/citation/CBB000650275/)

Book Sapp, Jan; (2009)
The New Foundations of Evolution: On the Tree of Life (/isis/citation/CBB000952774/)

Article Hans-Jürgen Apell; (2018)
Finding Na,K-ATPase: I - From Cell to Molecule (/isis/citation/CBB428130959/)

Article Brockwell, John; Sprent, Janet I.; Day, David A.; (2013)
Fraser John Bergersen 1929--2011 (/isis/citation/CBB001211868/)

Article Müller-Wille, Staffan; (2007)
Hybrids, Pure Cultures, and Pure Lines: From Nineteenth-Century Biology to Twentieth-Century Genetics (/isis/citation/CBB000831420/)

Article Kragh, Helge; (2009)
Uorganisk darwinisme---Udviklingstanken i de fysiske videnskaber (/isis/citation/CBB001022218/)

Book John L. Ingraham; (2017)
Kin: How We Came to Know Our Microbe Relatives (/isis/citation/CBB018554027/)

Article Kauffman, George B.; Adloff, Jean-Pierre; (2013)
The Centenary of the Maillard Reaction (/isis/citation/CBB001211975/)

Book Prebble, John; Weber, Bruce; (2003)
Wandering in the Gardens of the Mind: A Biography of Peter Mitchell and the Making of Glynn (/isis/citation/CBB000302343/)

Article Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette; (2009)
Biomimetic Chemistry and Synthetic Biology: A Two-way Traffic across the Borders (/isis/citation/CBB001021317/)

Article Steel, Daniel; (2011)
Extrapolation, Uncertainty Factors, and the Precautionary Principle (/isis/citation/CBB001024020/)

Article Schwenke, Klaus Dieter; (2007)
Vom Eyweiß zum Protein: Zur Geschichte eines Begriffs (/isis/citation/CBB000900099/)

Book Lagerkvist, Ulf; (2005)
The Enigma of Ferment: From the Philosopher's Stone to the First Biochemical Nobel Prize (/isis/citation/CBB000610395/)

Article Sourkes, Theodore L.; (2004)
The Discovery of Lecithin, the First Phospholipid (/isis/citation/CBB000740503/)

Authors & Contributors
Apell, Hans-Jürgen
John L. Ingraham
Carlos Ramírez
Wendt, Diane L.
Weber, Bruce H.
Steel, Daniel
Concepts
Biochemistry
Chemistry
Microbiology
Biology
Organic chemistry
Evolution
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
Places
United States
Germany
Australia
Institutions
Heidelberg Universität
McCollum-Pratt Institute
McGill University
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Md.)
Iowa State College, Ames
Universität Bonn
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment