Édouard Joseph Louis Marie Van Beneden (5 March 1846 in Leuven – 28 April 1910 in Liège), son of Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden, was a Belgian

embryologist Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, '' -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos ...

, cytologist and marine biologist. He was professor of

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...

at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the ...

. He contributed to cytogenetics by his works on the roundworm ''

Ascaris ''Ascaris'' is a genus of parasitic nematode worms known as the "small intestinal roundworms", which is a type of parasitic worm. One species, '' Ascaris lumbricoides'', affects humans and causes the disease ascariasis. Another species, ''Ascar ...

''. In this work he discovered how

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins ar ...

s organized

meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately ...

(the production of gametes). Van Beneden elucidated, together with Walther Flemming and

Eduard Strasburger Eduard Adolf Strasburger (1 February 1844 – 18 May 1912) was a Polish-German professor and one of the most famous botanists of the 19th century. He discovered mitosis in plants. Life Eduard Strasburger was born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, ...

, the essential facts of mitosis, where, in contrast to meiosis, there is a qualitative and quantitative equality of chromosome distribution to daughter cells. (See

karyotype A karyotype is the general appearance of the complete set of metaphase chromosomes in the cells of a species or in an individual organism, mainly including their sizes, numbers, and shapes. Karyotyping is the process by which a karyotype is disce ...

Publications

* ''Recherches sur la composition et la signification de l'œuf'' 186
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* ''La maturation de l'oeuf, la fecondation, et les premieres phases du développement embryonnaire des mammifères, d'aprés des recherches faites chez le lapin : communication préliminaire'' in ''Bulletins de l'Académie royale de Belgique. 2me.série ; 40(12)'' 1875

Father

Van Beneden's father, Pierre-Joseph van Beneden (18091894) was also a well-known biologist. He introduced two important terms into evolutionary biology and ecology: mutualism and

commensalism Commensalism is a long-term biological interaction (symbiosis) in which members of one species gain benefits while those of the other species neither benefit nor are harmed. This is in contrast with mutualism, in which both organisms benefit fr ...

.Boucher D.H. 1985. The idea of mutualism, past and future. In D.H. Boucher (ed) ''The biology of mutualism: ecology and evolution''. Oxford University Press. 128

References

Sources

* * *Hamoir, Gabriel. "''La révolution évolutionniste en Belgique: du fixiste Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden à son fils darwiniste Édouard"'', Presses Universitaires de Liège, 2001. Belgian zoologists University of Liège faculty Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences 1846 births 1910 deaths {{Zoologist-stub