Erwin Baur

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Erwin Baur (1875 - 1933) was a German geneticist and botanist. Baur worked primarily on plant genetics. He was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Breeding Research research (since 1938 Erwin Baur-Institute). Baur is considered to be the father of plant virology. He discovered the inheritance of plasmids.

In 1908 Baur demonstrated a lethal gene in the Antirrhinum plant. In 1909 working on the chloroplast genes in Pelarganium (geraniums) he showed that they violated four of Mendel's five laws. Baur stated that

1. plastids are carriers of hereditary factors which are able to mutate.
2. in variegated plants, random sorting out of plastids is taking place.
3. the genetic results indicate a biparental inheritance of plastids by egg cells and sperm cells in pelargonium.

Since the 1930s and the work of Otto Renner, plastid inheritance became a widely accepted genetic theory.

[edit] References

• Hagemann, R. 2000. Erwin Baur or Carl Correns: who really created the theory of plastid inheritance?. Journal of Heredity 91:435-440

[edit] External links

• Biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science