Alice Elizabeth Gairdner (1873–1954) was a British

plant scientist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processe ...

and

cytologist Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

Life

In the 1910s, Gairdner was associated with the

Plant Breeding Institute The Plant Breeding Institute was an agricultural research organisation in Cambridge in the United Kingdom between 1912 and 1987. Founding The institute was established in 1912 as part of the School of Agriculture at the University of Cambridge. R ...

in Cambridge and became one of

William Bateson William Bateson (8 August 1861 – 8 February 1926) was an English biologist who was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity, and the chief populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel following their rediscove ...

's Mendelian followers. In Cambridge she studied

Tropaeolum ''Tropaeolum'' , commonly known as nasturtium (; literally "nose-twister" or "nose-tweaker"), is a genus of roughly 80 species of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants. It was named by Carl Linnaeus in his book ''Species Plantarum'' ...

(Nasturtium) and this work interested Bateson – he had numerous drawings and figures of Tropaeolum by Gairdner in his collection. Gairdner joined the

John Innes Horticultural Institution The John Innes Centre (JIC), located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, is an independent centre for research and training in plant and microbial science founded in 1910. It is a registered charity (No 223852) grant-aided by the Biotechnology and B ...

(now the John Innes Centre) in 1919 as a student, joining the so-called 'Ladies Lab' along with

Caroline Pellew Caroline Pellew (born 1882) was a British geneticist who made significant contributions to knowledge of the laws of inheritance in various organisms including peas. Education Pellew was awarded the first minor studentship at the John Innes Cent ...

, Dorothea De Winton, Dorothy Cayley, Aslaug Sverdrup and Irma Andersson-Kottö. Gairdner investigated male sterility in

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

, initially with Bateson, and continued the work after his death. In papers published in 1921 and 1929, they proposed that nuclear-cytoplasmic interactions may be causing the male sterility phenotype. Gairdner primarily worked with

J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

, who led the genetics research at the institution from 1927 to 1937, following Bateson's death in 1926. By 1929, Gairdner had been appointed as a 'Cytologist', as her worked combined genetic analysis with microscopy. With Haldane she studied the genetics of

Antirrhinum ''Antirrhinum'' is a genus of plants commonly known as dragon flowers, snapdragons and dog flower because of the flowers' fancied resemblance to the face of a dragon that opens and closes its mouth when laterally squeezed. They are native to r ...

, leading to the publication of two papers in 1929 and 1933 on the inheritance of two linked factors that could interact to give a lethal phenotype. These papers indicate that Gairdner was solely responsible for the practical work (continuing crosses set up by her predecessor, Ida Sutton), and Haldane for the theoretical interpretation. She also studied Cleiranthus, and collaborated with Haldane and

Rose Scott-Moncrieff Rose Scott-Moncrieff (1903-1991), was an English biochemist, credited with founding the science of biochemical genetics. Life She was born Rose Scott-Moncrieff in 1903. She studied an undergraduate degree at Imperial College London and received ...

in the investigation of pigmentation in the flowers. Gairdner also published several articles with

Cyril Darlington Cyril Dean Darlington (19 December 1903 – 26 March 1981) was an English biologist, cytologist, geneticist and eugenicist, who discovered the mechanics of chromosomal crossover, its role in inheritance, and therefore its importance to evolutio ...

describing chromosome pairing and ring formation during meiosis in

Campanula ''Campanula'' () is one of several genera of flowering plants in the family Campanulaceae commonly known as bellflowers. They take both their common and scientific names from the bell-shaped flowers — ''campanula'' is Latin for "little bell" ...

. Gairdner presented the work on ring formation in Campanula at the

Genetics Society The Genetics Society is a British learned society. It was founded by William Bateson and Edith Rebecca Saunders in 1919 and celebrated its centenary year in 2019. It is therefore one of the oldest learned societies devoted to genetics. Its membe ...

meeting in 1936.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gairdner, Alice Elizabeth 1873 births 1954 deaths British women geneticists British geneticists 20th-century British botanists British women botanists British horticulturists Alumni of the University of Cambridge