Otto Renner (25 April 1883 in

Neu-Ulm Neu-Ulm (Swabian: ''Nej-Ulm'') is the capital of the Neu-Ulm district and a town in Swabia, Bavaria. Neighbouring towns include Ulm, Senden, Pfaffenhofen an der Roth, Holzheim, Nersingen and Elchingen. The population is 58,978 (31 December ...

– 8 July 1960) was a German plant

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 processes ...

. Following the work of

Erwin Baur Erwin Baur (16 April 1875, in Neuried, Ichenheim, Grand Duchy of Baden – 2 December 1933) was a German geneticist and botanist. Baur worked primarily on plant genetics. He was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Breeding Research (since 1 ...

, Renner established the theory of maternal plastid inheritance as a widely accepted genetic theory. He studied

botany 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 w ...

under Karl von Goebel and Ludwig Radlkofer at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

, and with

Wilhelm Pfeffer Wilhelm Friedrich Philipp Pfeffer (9 March 1845 – 31 January 1920) was a German botanist and plant physiologist born in Grebenstein. Academic career He studied chemistry and pharmacy at the University of Göttingen, where his instructors incl ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

. From 1913 to 1920 he served as an associate professor of plant physiology at Munich, and afterwards, succeeded Christian Ernst Stahl as chair of botany at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

, where he was also director of the

botanical gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

. In 1946 he returned as a professor to the University of Munich.Plett – Schmidseder
edited by

Walther Killy Walther Killy (26 August 191728 December 1995) was a German literary scholar who specialised in poetry, especially that of Friedrich Hölderlin and Georg Trakl. He taught at the Free University of Berlin, the Georg-August-Universität Göttinge ...

Renner worked with plants from the genus ''

Oenothera ''Oenothera'' is a genus of about 145 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups, and sundrops. They are not closely related to ...

'' (

evening primrose ''Oenothera'' is a genus of about 145 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups, and sundrops. They are not closely related to ...

s). His research of hybrid forms of ''Oenothera'' contributed significantly to the understanding of mutations. From 1932 to 1943 he was editor of the botanical journal ''Flora''. The plant genus '' Rennera'' (family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

) was named in his honor by Hermann Merxmüller.

Selected works

* ''Beiträge zur Anatomie und Systematik der Artocarpeen und Conocephaleen insbesondere der Gattung Ficus'', 1906 (doctoral thesis). * ''Untersuchungen über die faktorielle Konstitution einiger komplexheterozygotischer Önotheren'', 1925. * ''Artbastarde bei Pflanzen'', 1929. * ''Führer durch die Gewächshäuser des Botanischen Gartens München-Nymphenburg'', 1951. * ''William Bateson und Carl Correns'', 1961 –

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 ...

and

Carl Correns Carl Erich Correns (19 September 1864 – 14 February 1933) was a German botanist and geneticist notable primarily for his independent discovery of the principles of heredity, which he achieved simultaneously but independently of the botanist ...

.Most widely held works about Otto Renner
WorldCat Identities

References

External links

* 1883 births 1960 deaths Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society German geneticists Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty People from Neu-Ulm People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) University of Jena faculty Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences {{Germany-botanist-stub