Genetics and Molecular Biology, 23, 4, 917-920 (2000) Historical aspects of plant cytogenetics 917 Some historical aspects of plant cytogenetics in Argentina and Uruguay Juan H. Hunziker Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto de Botánica Darwinion, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Ciudad Universitaria (l428), C. C. 22, San Isidro (l642), Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-mail: [email protected] “...history, emulator of time, depository of actions, witness of the past, example and announcement of the present, warning about the future.” MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, Part 1, Chapt. 9. Abstract Catalina) (Figure 1), where in the thirties, he trained sev- eral geneticists and cytogeneticists. Among those trained A brief account is given of the origin and development of plant by Horovitz were Benno Schnack and Guillermo Covas, who cytogenetics in Argentina and Uruguay, along with some of the collaborated in the forties and worked together in Mendoza factors that hampered the development of this area. on several problems on the cytogenetics of interspecific hybrids of Verbenaceae and Hordeum, and made chromo- It is beyond my ability to give a complete historical some counts on over two hundred species of the vascular picture of the development of plant cytogenetics in Latin flora of Argentina. Later, in Castelar and La Plata, they America, therefore, I will concentrate on some aspects of trained several plant cytologists, among them Otto Solbrig, its development in Argentina and Uruguay. who some years later became Professor of Botany at In the Rio de la Plata area some plant cytogeneti- Harvard University. cists have been autodidacts of great merit, while others In 1946 the book General Cytology by E. De Robertis, had teachers in our countries, the USA or Europe. The de- W.W. Nowinski and F.A. Saéz was published, a work which velopment of cytogenetics in this area has been dealt with helped to develop interest in cytological problems among previously (Hunziker, 1976, 1980, 1990, 1994; Hunziker the younger generation and which was eventually translated and Sáez, 1976; Mazoti and Hunziker, 1976), and in into eight foreign languages. Hunziker and Sáez (1976) a detailed bibliography is given At Buenos Aires University, Lucien Hauman, an out- for Argentina covering the period 1923-1972. standing botany teacher, born and trained in Belgium, had In Figure 1 I have tried to depict the “genealogy” of an enthusiastic student, Lorenzo R. Parodi, who later be- the scientists involved in plant cytogenetics and to repre- came a grass taxonomist and Professor of Botany at the sent the influence of their diverse teachers and the interac- universities of Buenos Aires and La Plata. Parodi had a spe- tions between them (indicated by the arrows). I apologize cial gift for attracting students to botanical research, whom for the inevitable omissions and mistakes and for the par- he first trained as taxonomists but later encouraged some tial treatment of the subject, and, although the different of them to study cytogenetics in Berkeley, California un- groups of cytogeneticists are indicated, it is impossible to der the tuition of Professor George L. Stebbins, a world deal in detail with their accomplishments in an article of authority in plant evolution. Despite the fact that at that time this size (more details about some of these scientists can there was no regular state system for studying abroad, Juan be found in Hunziker and Saéz, 1976). I. Valencia (1946), Guillermo Covas (1948), and Juan H. The beginnings of cytogenetics in Latin America can Hunziker (1951, 1957, 1958) were trained by Stebbins and be traced to La Plata and Buenos Aires in the first quarter worked on several projects dealing with the cytogenetics of this century. At the University of La Plata the Zoology of grass hybrids and biosystematics. Two other former stu- Professor Dr. Miguel Fernández, discoverer in 1909 of dents of Parodi, Armando T. Hunziker (Córdoba) and A. polyembryony in the “mulita” (Dasypus hybrida), had two Krapovickas (Corrientes), developed botanical centers distinguished students, Francisco A. Saéz and Salomón which became important for plant cytogenetics (Figure 1). Horovitz. Both were the initiators of plant cytology and In the mid forties J.I. Valencia worked at Berkeley under began using Belling’s acetocarmin technique in 1925 and Professor G.L. Stebbins on the cytogenetics of interspe- 1926, respectively. Saéz formed groups at La Plata and cific hybrids in the Triticeae, and later he also dealt with the Buenos Aires, while Horovitz formed groups at Buenos cytotaxonomy of Streptochaeta and Piptochaetium Aires, La Plata and Llavallol (Instituto Fitotécnico de Sta. (Gramineae). In the late fifties Valencia organized a human 918 Hunziker CORDOBA L. Hauman L.R. Parodi A.T. Hunziker (Buenos M. Matzke (Buenos Aires A. Cocucci A. Matzke Aires) M. Cave E. Moscone La Plata) E. Di Fulvio (Salzburg) 1880-1965 1895-1966 (Berkeley) L. Bernardello L. Stiefkens K. Jones CORRIENTES M. Dematteis I. Caponio F. Ehrendorfer (Kew) A. Krapovickas M.S. Ferrucci G. Norrmann D. Schweizer G. Lavia Rio de La Plata A. Fernández M. Urbani (Viena) G.W. Burton C. Quarín V. Solís Neffa Teachers W.W. Hanna MONTEVIDEO (Georgia) POSADAS A. Honfi J. Daviña F.A. Saéz L. Burson O. Crossa (Texas) C. Mazzella J.I. Valencia P. Speranza BUENOS AIRES R.A. Palacios M.I. Moraes F. J.H. Hunziker A.M. Sanso Centers of G.L. Stebbins C. Comas C. Naranjo A. Castagnaro (Berkeley) M.R. Ferrari L. Poggio E. Greizerstein Development E. Zeiger A.F. Wulff and their Founders CASTELAR LLAVALLOL J. Lacadena G. Covas C.A. Naranjo N. Jouvé C. Cialzeta L. Poggio (Madrid) O. Fernández A. Chiavarino J. Warden M. Rosato K. Jones E. Bernatené (Kew) L.F. Randolph B. Schnack LLAVALLOL Non-Latin- S. Horovitz A.F. Blakeslee G. Covas B. Schnack (Cornell) E. Hirschhorn S. Fehleisen American (Buenos Aires Teachers La Plata H. Pogliaga O.T. Solbrig L.B. Mazoti A. Cocucci CASTELAR Llavallol A. Martínez Caracas) J. Perak J. Endrizzi E. Gini B. BLANCA J. Dubcovsky 1897-1975 O. Nuñez S. Lewis (Texas) M. N. Frayssinet Fernández R. Rodríguez RIO CUARTO (La Plata) I. Tiranti 1882-1950 E.P. De Robertis BUENOS AIRES R. Genghini F.A. Saéz J. Andrés V. Ferrerira (La Plata F. Saura CASTELAR Buenos Aires J. La Porte E. Favret Montevideo) C.E. McClung F. Ibarra E. Suarez 1898-1976 (Pennsylvania) E. Ratera Figure 1 - Main research groups of plant cytogenetics in Argentina and Uruguay. Arrows show influences of teachers. Historical aspects of plant cytogenetics 919 cytogenetics group in Buenos Aires, which disintegrated the universities produced intolerance, intrigues and discrimi- after the coup of 1966. nation greatly by disturbing academic and research activi- In the late forties, largely as an autodidact, Antonio ties. These problems plus low salaries, the lack of financial Krapovickas started his cytotaxonomical research in support for research and the various military dictatorships Buenos Aires on more than 150 species of Malvaceae, had serious negative effects on the development of science which he continued in Córdoba, Tucumán and finally Cor- in Argentina and other Latin American countries. Moreover, rientes. Here, he and his wife Carmen Cristóbal have been the lack of vision of our statesmen that so far have ignored responsible for the creation of a botanical institute, where the fact that in the present world “knowledge is power” and many cytologists have been trained, including Aveliano have not given enough impulse and stimulus to the develop- Fernández (working on Arachis and Turneraceae), Camilo ment of educational and scientific activities (Hunziker, Quarín and Guillermo Norrmann (Paspalum and Andro- 1990). As a consequence, in the second half of this century pogon), Silvia Ferrucci (Sapindaceae) and Viviana Solís- many cytologists in Argentina lost or left their positions Neffa (Turneracae), among others. and some were forced to emigrate to other countries. In Ovidio Núñez at La Plata, a student of Sáez and Parodi, 1947, S. Horovitz move to Venezuela and F.A. Sáez and studied the somatic chromosomes of 45 species of Pani- Eduardo De Robertis to Uruguay, while in 1952, Otto ceae (Gramineae) and made chromosome counts on several Solbrig was expelled as a student from the University of La genera of grasses, published by L.R. Parodi in Gramineas Plata and had to emigrate to the USA to finish his studies. In Bonarienses (1946, 1958). Later with his students at Bahía 1966, J.I. Valencia and many others left the country after Blanca he studied the evolution of species of Nothos- the Onganía military coup and in 1976, O. Núñez and I. cordum, a genus that also received the attention of Orfeo Tiranti lost their positions as professors at the Universidad Crossa in Montevideo. del Sur (Bahía Blanca) because of political discrimination. In the mid fifties and sixties Alfredo Cocucci and Emil But if history, as the great Cervantes has noted, can be “a warn- Di Fulvio in Córdoba, working mainly on plant embryol- ing about the future”, we should strive everyday to maintain a ogy, started chromosomal studies on several groups, the democratic government and try to minimize the political former in Orchidaceae and the latter (after training with struggles within the university and their resulting interfer- Marion Cave, Berkeley) worked mainly on Liliaceae and ence with academic activities and also try to foster a wide Solanaceae and helped to train other cytologists like Luis tolerance for the diverse opinions and positions of all intel- Bernardello, who studied different families and likewise lectual activity, as is customary in many advanced countries. trained several cytologists, including Eduardo Moscone, Furthermore, we should follow the example of Switzerland, who had further training with Friedrich Ehrendorfer and for instance, where as stated by Aebi (1978) “the autonomy Dieter Schweizer in Vienna, as well as with Marjorie and of the university is still intact, and the initiative and creativ- Antonius Matzke in Salzburg, where he focused on Capsi- ity of the individual scientist are not hampered by an exag- cum and Nicotiana tabacum chromosomes.