Martinus Beijerinck

{{Short description|Dutch microbiologist (1851–1931)}} {{redirect|Beijerinck|the lunar crater|Beijerinck (crater)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}} {{Infobox scientist | image = Martinus Willem Beijerinck.png | birth_name = Martinus Willem Beijerinck | birth_date = {{birth-date|16 March 1851}} | birth_place = Amsterdam, Netherlands | death_date = {{death-date|1 January 1931 }} (aged {{#expr:(1931)-(1851)-((1)<(3)or(1)=(3)and(1)<(16))}}) | death_place = Gorssel, Netherlands | field = Microbiology | work_institutions = Wageningen University Delft School of Microbiology (founder) | alma_mater = Leiden University | known_for = One of the founders of virology, environmental microbiology and general microbiology Conceptual discovery of virus (tobacco mosaic virus) Enrichment culture Biological nitrogen fixation Sulfate-reducing bacteria Nitrogen fixing bacteria Azotobacter (''Azotobacter chroococcum'') Rhizobium ''Desulfovibrio desulfuricans'' (''Spirillum desulfuricans'') | prizes = Leeuwenhoek Medal (1905) }}

[[Image:Former Delft School of Microbiology.jpg|thumb|The Laboratory of Microbiology in Delft, where Beijerinck worked from 1897 to 1921.]]

'''Martinus Willem Beijerinck''' ({{IPA|nl|mɑrˈtinʏs ˈʋɪləm ˈbɛiərɪŋk}}, 16 March 1851 – 1 January 1931) was a Dutch microbiologist and botanist who was one of the founders of virology and environmental microbiology. He is credited with the co-discovery of viruses (1898), which he called "''contagium vivum fluidum''".

==Life== ===Early life and education=== Born in Amsterdam, Beijerinck studied at the Technical School of Delft, where he was awarded the degree of biology in 1872. He obtained his Doctor of Science degree from the University of Leiden in 1877.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Chung | first1 = K. T. | last2 = Ferris | first2 = D. H. | title = Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851–1931): Pioneer of General Microbiology | journal = ASM News | year = 1996 | volume = 62 | issue = 10 | pages = 539––543 | publisher = American Society For Microbiology | location = Washington, D.C. | url = http://asm.org/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/0000000251/621096p539.pdf | access-date = 17 October 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120425032029/http://asm.org/ccLibraryFiles/FILENAME/0000000251/621096p539.pdf | archive-date = 25 April 2012 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

At the time, Delft, then a Polytechnic, did not have the right to confer doctorates, so Leiden did this for them. He became a teacher in microbiology at the Agricultural School in Wageningen (now Wageningen University) and later at the ''Polytechnische Hogeschool Delft'' (Delft Polytechnic, currently Delft University of Technology) (from 1895). He established the Delft School of Microbiology. His studies of agricultural and industrial microbiology yielded fundamental discoveries in the field of biology. His achievements have been perhaps unfairly overshadowed by those of his contemporaries, Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur, because unlike them, Beijerinck never actually studied human disease.

In 1877, he wrote his first notable research paper, discussing plant galls. The paper later became the basis for his doctoral dissertation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bos|first1=L.|date=29 March 1999 |title=Beijerinck's Work on Tobacco Mosaic Virus: Historical Context and Legacy |journal=Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences |volume=354|issue=1383|pages=675–685 |doi=10.1098/rstb.1999.0420|pmid=10212948|pmc=1692537}}</ref>

In 1885 he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00001421 |title=Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851 - 1931) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=19 July 2015}}</ref>

===Scientific career=== thumb|Beijerinck working in his laboratory Beijerinck is considered one of the founders of virology.<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Lustig |first1 = Alice |last2 = Levine |first2 = Arnold J. | title = One Hundred Years of Virology | journal = Journal of Virology | volume = 66 | issue = 8 | pages = 4629–4631 | year = 1992 |location = Washington, D.C.| pmc=241285 | pmid=1629947|doi = 10.1128/JVI.66.8.4629-4631.1992 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bos| first1 = L. | year = 1995 | title = The Embryonic Beginning of Virology: Unbiased Thinking and Dogmatic Stagnation | journal = Archives of Virology | volume = 140 | issue = 3 | pages = 613–619 | doi=10.1007/bf01718437| pmid = 7733832 | s2cid = 23685370 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Zaitlin| first = Milton| author-link = Milton Zaitlin| editor1-last = Kung| editor1-first = S. D.| editor2-last = Yang| editor2-first = S. F.| title = Discoveries in Plant Biology| year = 1998| publisher = World Publishing Co.| location = Hong Kong| isbn = 978-981-02-1313-8| pages = 105–110| chapter = The Discovery of the Causal Agent of the Tobacco Mosaic Disease| chapter-url = http://www.apsnet.org/publications/apsnetfeatures/Documents/1998/ZaitlinDiscoveryCausalAgentTobaccoMosaicVirus.pdf| access-date = 17 October 2011| archive-date = 4 February 2012| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120204055328/http://www.apsnet.org/publications/apsnetfeatures/Documents/1998/ZaitlinDiscoveryCausalAgentTobaccoMosaicVirus.pdf| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Lerner |editor1-first=K. L. |editor2-last=Lerner |editor2-first=B. W. |title=World of Microbiology and Immunology |year=2002 |publisher=Thomas Gage Publishing |isbn=0-7876-6540-1 |quote=Beijerinck asserted that the virus was liquid, but this theory was later disproved by Wendell Stanley, who demonstrated the particulate nature of viruses. Beijerinck, nevertheless, set the stage for twentieth-century virologists to uncover the secrets of viral pathogens now known to cause a wide range of plant and animal (including human) diseases |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/worldofmicrobiol0001unse }}</ref> In 1898, he published results on the filtration experiments demonstrating that tobacco mosaic disease is caused by an infectious agent smaller than a bacterium.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Beijerinck | first = M. W. | title = Über ein Contagium vivum fluidum als Ursache der Fleckenkrankheit der Tabaksblätter | journal = Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam | volume = 65 | pages = 1–22 | year = 1898 | language = de | url=https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/publications/PU00011860.pdf}} Translated into English in [https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/apsnetfeatures/Documents/1998/BeijerckSpotDiseaseTobaccoLeaves.PDF Johnson, J., Ed. (1942) ''Phytopathological classics.''] (St. Paul, Minnesota: American Phytopathological Society) No. 7, pp. 33–52 (St. Paul, Minnesota) </ref>

His results were in accordance with the similar observation made by Dmitri Ivanovsky in 1892.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Iwanowski | first = D. | title = Über die Mosaikkrankheit der Tabakspflanze | journal = Bulletin Scientifique Publié Par l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg |series=Nouvelle Série III | volume = 35 | pages = 67–70 | location = St. Petersburg | year = 1892 | language = de, ru}} Translated into English in Johnson, J., Ed. (1942) ''Phytopathological classics'' (St. Paul, Minnesota: American Phytopathological Society) No. 7, pp. 27–-30.</ref> Like Ivanovsky before him and Adolf Mayer, predecessor at Wageningen, Beijerinck could not culture the filterable infectious agent; however, he concluded that the agent can replicate and multiply in living plants. He named the new pathogen ''virus'' to indicate its non-bacterial nature. Beijerinck asserted that the virus was somewhat liquid in nature, calling it "''contagium vivum fluidum''" (contagious living fluid).<ref>{{cite book|last=Creager|first=Angela N. H.|date=2002|title=The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6o8KaupH3e4C&q=contagium+vivum+fluidum|location=Chicago|publisher=University of Chicago Press|page=26|isbn=9780226120256|access-date=11 December 2020|archive-date=11 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201211223053/https://books.google.com/books?id=6o8KaupH3e4C&dq=contagium+vivum+fluidum&source=gbs_navlinks_s|url-status=live}}</ref> It was not until the first crystals of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) obtained by Wendell Stanley in 1935, the first electron micrographs of TMV produced in 1939 and the first X-ray crystallographic analysis of TMV performed in 1941 proved that the virus was particulate.

Nitrogen fixation,<ref>Beijerinck, M.W, 1901, ''Über oligonitrophile Mikroben, Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde, Infektionskrankheiten und Hygiene, Abteilung II, Vol 7'', pp. 561–582</ref> the process by which diatomic nitrogen gas is converted to ammonium ions and becomes available to plants, was also investigated by Beijerinck. Bacteria perform nitrogen fixation, dwelling inside root nodules of certain plants (legumes). In addition to having discovered a biochemical reaction vital to soil fertility and agriculture, Beijerinck revealed this archetypical example of symbiosis between plants and bacteria.

Beijerinck discovered the phenomenon of bacterial sulfate reduction, a form of anaerobic respiration. He learned bacteria could use sulfate as a terminal electron acceptor, instead of oxygen. This discovery has had an important impact on our current understanding of biogeochemical cycles. ''Spirillum desulfuricans'', now known as ''Desulfovibrio desulfuricans'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lpsn.dsmz.de/genus/desulfovibrio |title=Genus ''Desulfovibrio'' |last1=Jean |first1=Euzeby |publisher=List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature |access-date=November 6, 2014}}</ref> the first known sulfate-reducing bacterium, was isolated and described by Beijerinck.

Beijerinck invented the enrichment culture, a fundamental method of studying microbes from the environment. He is often incorrectly credited with framing the microbial ecology idea that "everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects", which was stated by Lourens Baas Becking.<ref>{{cite journal |author=de Wit R, Bouvier T. |title=Everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects; what did Baas Becking and Beijerinck really say? |journal=Environmental Microbiology |year=2006 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=755–758 |doi=10.1111/j.1462-2920.2006.01017.x |pmid=16584487|bibcode=2006EnvMi...8..755D }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bass-Becking |first=Lourens G.M. |year=1934 |location=The Hague |publisher=W.P. Van Stockum & Zoon |title=Geobiologie of inleiding tot de milieukunde |trans-title=Geobiology or Introduction to Environmental Science}}</ref>

==Personal life== Beijerinck was a socially eccentric figure. He was verbally abusive to students, never married, and had few professional collaborations. He was also known for his ascetic lifestyle and his view of science and marriage being incompatible. His low popularity with his students and their parents periodically depressed him, as he very much loved spreading his enthusiasm for biology in the classroom. After his retirement at the Delft School of Microbiology in 1921, at age 70, he moved to Gorssel where he lived for the rest of his life, together with his two sisters.<ref name="hn2020">{{cite web |author1=Geertje Dekkers |title=De man die het virus bedacht |trans-title=The man who invented the virus |url=https://www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/de-man-die-het-virus-bedacht |language=nl |date=24 March 2020}}</ref>

==Recognition== Beijerinckia (a genus of bacteria),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arahal|first1=David R.|title=Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria |chapter=''Beijerinckia'' |date=June 2016 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304621641 |pages=1–18|doi=10.1002/9781118960608.gbm00795.pub2|isbn=9781118960608|access-date=11 December 2020|archive-date=11 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201211223051/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304621641_Beijerinckia|url-status=live}}</ref> Beijerinckiaceae (a family of Hyphomicrobiales), and Beijerinck crater are named after him.

The M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize (''M.W. Beijerinck Virologie Prijs'') is awarded in his honor.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Martinus Beijerinck |sopt=t}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060214064809/http://www.beijerinck.bt.tudelft.nl/ Beijerinck and the Delft School of Microbiology] *[https://www.angelfire.com/ga2/nestsite2/webunit10.html Viruses and the Prokaryotic World]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beijerinck, Martinus}} Category:Martinus Beijerinck Category:1851 births Category:1931 deaths Category:Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925) Category:Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Category:Delft University of Technology alumni Category:Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology Category:Dutch microbiologists Category:19th-century Dutch botanists Category:20th-century Dutch botanists Category:Dutch phytopathologists Category:Environmental microbiology Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society Category:Honorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Category:Leeuwenhoek Medal winners Category:Leiden University alumni Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Nitrogen cycle Category:Scientists from Amsterdam Category:Dutch soil scientists Category:Academic staff of Wageningen University & Research