Émile Maupas
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François Émile Maupas (2 July 1842 in Vaudry – 18 October 1916 in
Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...
) was a French
librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...
, protozoologist, cytologist, and
botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
. Maupas contributed to ideas on the life cycle and reproduction of the
ciliate The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to flagellum, eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a ...
s. He founded the idea, known as the Maupasian life cycle, that some
protist A protist ( ) or protoctist is any eukaryotic organism that is not an animal, land plant, or fungus. Protists do not form a natural group, or clade, but are a paraphyletic grouping of all descendants of the last eukaryotic common ancest ...
s had a definite death following sexual reproduction, contrary to contemporary ideas on protists being immortal. He also identified the existence of mating types in ciliates. He developed culture techniques for a number of organisms and described the nematode ''
Caenorhabditis elegans ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a Hybrid word, blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''r ...
,'' which has since become a widely used
model organism A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. Mo ...
in biological studies.


Life and work

Maupas was born in Vaudry, to deputy mayor Pierre Augustin and Marie Adèle Geffroy. After studies at the local schools he joined the
École des chartes École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...
, and from 1867 he worked as an archivist in Cantal. It was here that he developed an interest in natural history and began to study
protozoa Protozoa (: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a polyphyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic debris. Historically ...
working in summer at laboratories in Paris. In 1890 he was named as an administrator-curator at the '' Bibliothèque nationale d'Alger'' and continued his research in his spare time.IDREF.fr
bibliography
He was a correspondent member of the ''
Académie des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...
''.Prosopo
Sociétés savantes de France
Maupas studied the life-history and reproduction of many species using innovative culture techniques. He examined conjugation in ciliates and established that senescence and death occurred in ciliates, contrary to the view of
August Weismann August Friedrich Leopold Weismann (; 17 January 18345 November 1914) was a German evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist. Fellow German Ernst Mayr ranked him as the second most notable evolutionary theorist of the 19th century, after Charl ...
and others that they were immortal, following sexual reproduction. Maupas did not agree that the main value of sexual reproduction was in the maintenance of variability. He argued that it helped in rejuvenating the nucleus of one of the two conjugants. He also suggested that there were sexes or mating types in
rotifer The rotifers (, from Latin 'wheel' and 'bearing'), sometimes called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic Coelom#Pseudocoelomates, pseudocoelomate animals. They were first describ ...
s, including parthenogenetic females. Maupas also studied
nematode The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...
s and first described ''Rhabditis elegans'' (now ''
Caenorhabditis elegans ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a Hybrid word, blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''r ...
'') in 1900 and isolated it from soil in Algeria. His culture techniques enabled the species to become one of the most widely studied model organisms. He noted that nematodes had a five-stage development with the fifth being the adult stage. The annelid genus '' Maupasia'' is named after him, as is the ascarid genus ''Maupasiella'' (synonym ''Maupasina''
Seurat Georges Pierre Seurat ( , ; ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough ...
, 1913
). Maupas had no formal training in science and worked almost completely in isolation but published in journals. He received an honorary doctorate in 1903 from the
University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...
and was decorated knight of the
Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
in 1909.


Associated published works

He was the author of "''Description physique de la République Argentine : d'après des observations personnelles et étrangères''", a French translation of
Hermann Burmeister Karl Hermann Konrad Burmeister (also known as Carlos Germán Conrado Burmeister) (15 January 1807 – 2 May 1892) was a German Argentine zoologist, entomologist, herpetologist, botany, botanist, and coleopterologist. He served as a professor at ...
's book on the
Argentine Republic Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
. Other written efforts by Maupas include: * ''Essai sur la législation des guerres féodales'', thèse
École des Chartes École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...
, 1867. * ''Un nouveau Rhabditis; Sur un champignon parasite des Rhabditis'' (A new '' Rhabditis''; about a fungus parasite of Rhabditis) with René Maire, 1915. ** Works about Émile Maupas: * ''Inauguration de la plaque commémorative apposée sur la maison habitée par Emile Maupas à Alger, le mercredi 6 avril 1932'', by Maurice Caullery; Académie des sciences (France). Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 1937. * ''Emile Maupas : prince des protozologistes'', by Edmond Sergent, Alger : Institut Pasteur d'Alger, 1955.WorldCat Search
publications
* ''Emile MAUPAS 1842-1916: Le savant de la Casbah d'Alger,'' by Gérard-Luc Neouze, Neuilly-sur-Seine: Les Éditions de l'Officine, 2024, ISBN 978-2355513893.


See also

* History of research on Caenorhabditis elegans


References


External links


Emile Maupas, prince des protozoologistes
(1955) by Edmond Sergent (biography in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maupas, Emile École Nationale des Chartes alumni 19th-century French botanists French librarians 19th-century French zoologists 1842 births 1916 deaths 20th-century French botanists Recipients of the Legion of Honour