TY - JOUR
T1 - Basic Science B.D. (before Drosophila)
T2 - Cytology at the University of Warsaw (Poland)
AU - Kloc, Malgorzata
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - The majority of modern research in cell and developmental biology is based almost exclusively on seven model organisms: mouse, zebra fish, Xenopus laevis frog, Drosophila fly, Caenorabditis elegans worm, Arabldopsis plant and yeast. Although the validity and practicality of these model systems and their impact on scientific progress are undeniable, the combination of goal-oriented science and the use of the model systems introduces, a priori, a dangerous limitation to scientific discovery. Consequently, many astonishing phenomena occurring in non-model organisms are either never studied or, disappear from scientific consciousness. A perfect example is the fate of the important studies by Professor Zygmunt Kraczkiewicz on chromatin diminution in Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) conducted before World War II and continued by his team until early 1990 in the Department of Cytology at Warsaw University in Poland. These light and electron microscopy studies have not been elevated to the molecular level, and although they deserve to be extensively studied and cited by researchers working in the field of soma and germ cell differentiation and specification, they have been, within the past 40 years, nearly completely wiped out of scientific memory. This article presents a short summary of this important research in the historical context of pre- and post-war science at Warsaw University in Poland.
AB - The majority of modern research in cell and developmental biology is based almost exclusively on seven model organisms: mouse, zebra fish, Xenopus laevis frog, Drosophila fly, Caenorabditis elegans worm, Arabldopsis plant and yeast. Although the validity and practicality of these model systems and their impact on scientific progress are undeniable, the combination of goal-oriented science and the use of the model systems introduces, a priori, a dangerous limitation to scientific discovery. Consequently, many astonishing phenomena occurring in non-model organisms are either never studied or, disappear from scientific consciousness. A perfect example is the fate of the important studies by Professor Zygmunt Kraczkiewicz on chromatin diminution in Cecidomyiidae (Diptera) conducted before World War II and continued by his team until early 1990 in the Department of Cytology at Warsaw University in Poland. These light and electron microscopy studies have not been elevated to the molecular level, and although they deserve to be extensively studied and cited by researchers working in the field of soma and germ cell differentiation and specification, they have been, within the past 40 years, nearly completely wiped out of scientific memory. This article presents a short summary of this important research in the historical context of pre- and post-war science at Warsaw University in Poland.
KW - Cecidomyiidae
KW - Chromosome elimination
KW - Diptera
KW - Germ cell
KW - Germ plasm
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U2 - 10.1387/ijdb.072382mk
DO - 10.1387/ijdb.072382mk
M3 - Review article
C2 - 18311699
AN - SCOPUS:42349085596
SN - 0214-6282
VL - 52
SP - 115
EP - 119
JO - International Journal of Developmental Biology
JF - International Journal of Developmental Biology
IS - 2-3
ER -