Who was Walther Flemming?
Q: Who was Walther Flemming?
A: Walther Flemming was a German biologist and a founder of cytogenetics.
Q: What did he discover?
A: He discovered chromatin, which is correlated to threadlike structures in the cell nucleus– the chromosomes (meaning coloured body). He also studied the process of cell division and the distribution of chromosomes to daughter nuclei, which he called mitosis from the Greek word for thread.
Q: What did Edouard Van Beneden observe?
A: Edouard Van Beneden observed the same threadlike structures in the cell nucleus that Walther Flemming identified as chromatin.
Q: What source of biological material did Flemming use for his studies?
A: Flemming used fins and gills of salamanders as his source of biological material for his studies.
Q: What phrase did Flemming coin based on Virchow's statement?
A: Based on Virchow's statement "omnis cellula e cellula", Flemming coined the phrase "omnis nucleus e nucleo".
Q: Who rediscovered Mendel's rules two decades after Fleming's work?
A: Two decades after Fleming's discoveries, Gregor Mendel's (1822–1884) work on heredity was rediscovered.
Q: How is Fleming's discovery considered today?
A: Today, Fleming's discovery of mitosis and chromosomes is considered one of the 100 most important scientific discoveries of all times, and one of the 10 most important discoveries in cell biology.
