Boris Lvovich Astaurov (27 October 1904 – 21 June 1974) was a Soviet and Russian biologist and geneticist who worked on breeding experiments including pioneering work on silkworms, in which he demonstrated the induction of parthenogenesis, polyploidy, and cloning. He produced fertile tetraploid hybrids of the silkworm species ''

Bombyx mori The domestic silk moth (''Bombyx mori''), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of ''Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically imp ...

'' and ''Bombyx'' ''mandarina''. Astaurov was among the few Mendelian geneticists who survived Stalin's purge.

Life and work

Astaurov was born in Moscow to

eye surgeon Eye surgery, also known as ophthalmic or ocular surgery, is surgery performed on the eye or its adnexa, by an ophthalmologist or sometimes, an optometrist. Eye surgery is synonymous with ophthalmology. The eye is a very fragile organ, and requ ...

Lev M. Astaurov and

gynaecologist Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences, spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with ...

Olga A. Tikhenko. His father had trained in Kazan while his mother had studied in Sorbonne and Lyon and the family ran a private medical practice. Astaurov went to the Flerov gymnasium where his contemporaries included B.V. Kedrovsky,

Nikolay Timofeev-Ressovsky Nikolaj Vladimirovich Timofeev-Resovskij (also Timofeyeff-Ressovsky; russian: Николай Владимирович Тимофеев-Ресовский; – 28 March 1981) was a Soviet biologist. He conducted research in radiation genetics ...

Alexander Gurwitsch Alexander Gavrilovich Gurwitsch (also Gurvich, Gurvitch; russian: Алекса́ндр Гаври́лович Гу́рвич; 1874–1954) was a Russian and Soviet biologist and medical scientist who originated the morphogenetic field theory and di ...

, and G.K. Khrushchov. Astaurov was very good at drawing and learned piano with

Boris Chaliapin Boris Chaliapin (Russian: Борис Фёдорович Шаля́пин; September 22, 1904 – May 18, 1979) was an artist for ''Time'' magazine, for which he illustrated more than 400 covers, from 1942 (Jawaharlal Nehru) to Richard Nixon). Bac ...

under professor Feodor Koenemann. After graduating in 1921 he joined the Moscow University and after receiving a degree in 1927 he went to study zoology under N. K. Koltsov. In 1926 he went to work in the laboratory of

Sergei Chetverikov Sergei Sergeevich Chetverikov (russian: Серге́й Серге́евич Четверико́в; 6 May 1880 – 2 July 1959) was a Russian biologist and one of the early contributors to the development of the field of genetics. His research show ...

, to study the genetics of ''Drosophila'' populations. His studies were on the mutant ''tetraptera'' with four wings. He went to study the genetics and breeding of Arabian and Bactrian camels in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan from 1928 to 1929. His PhD could not be completed due to the arrest and deportation of Chetverikov based on the allegations made by

Trofim Lysenko Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (russian: Трофим Денисович Лысенко, uk, Трохи́м Дени́сович Лисе́нко, ; 20 November 1976) was a Soviet agronomist and Pseudoscience, pseudo-scientist.''An ill-educated agro ...

that Mendelian geneticists were fascists under Stalin's rule. Astaurov moved to Tashkent and joined the sericulture and silk research institute there. He demonstrated artificially induced parthenogenesis in silkworm eggs. In 1936 he returned to Moscow and was able to complete his doctorate. In 1942, after the death of Dmitriy Filatov, Astaurov continued to work at the Laboratory of Developmental Mechanics in Moscow and was made head of the department from 1947. After 1948, although not directly targeted by Lysenko, he was decreed to not work on silkworm but instead to study fish. After Stalin's death, he returned to study silkworm. The Tenth Genetics Congress at Montreal included a Soviet delegation consisting of Lysenkoists with the exception of Astaurov who refused to join the delegation. In 1974, a researcher working with Astaurov went to attend a meeting in Italy and defected. Astaurov was called to a meeting of the Soviet Academy where he was questioned about the "unpatriotic act" of his collaborator. He returned home from the meeting and died from a heart failure.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Astaurov, Boris 1904 births 1974 deaths Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Moscow State University alumni Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Russian biologists Russian geneticists Soviet biologists Soviet geneticists Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery