Barbara McClintock

By Jonan13
  • 1927 BCE

    McClintock got his doctorate

    McClintock earned a PhD in botany in 1927 from Cornell University, where he later led the corn cytogenetics group, his field of interest throughout his career.
  • Was born

    Was born
    United States Hartford, Connecticut, United States
  • the changes taking place

    In the late 1920s, he studied changes in chromosomes during maize breeding, showing through microscopy methods developed in his laboratory such fundamental processes as genetic recombination that occurs during meiosis.
  • Your interest in Genetics

    His interest in genetics awakened in 1921 during the first course of that subject; this, led by plant breeder and geneticist C. B. Hutchison, was similar to that offered at Harvard University
  • course of genetics

    Due to the exceptional interest shown by McClintock, Hutchinson invited her to participate in the Genetics course for graduates in 1922
  • the McClintock article

    Marcus Rhoades indicated that McClintock’s 1929 paper in the scientific journal Genetics, dealing with the triploidy of corn chromosomes, contained 10 of the 17 major scientific advances made at Cornell during the years 1929-1935
  • the first person to describe the crossings

    In 1930 he was the first person to describe the crossovers that occur between homologous chromosomes during meiosis
  • published the order of three chromosome genes

    In 1931 McClintock published the order of three genes of maize chromosome 9 by genetic mapping resulting from the understanding of the mechanism of linkage and crosslinking
  • conducted a study

    In 1933, he conducted a cytogenetic study of the centromere, showing its organization and function
  • Received a scholarship

    McClintock recibió una beca de la Fundación Guggenheim que sufragó seis meses de aprendizaje en Alemania
  • was recognized as an academic

    Due to this productivity, in 1944 she was recognized as an academic at the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, being the third woman to be elected
  • performed a cytogenetic analysis

    At the suggestion of George Beadle, in 1944 he performed a cytogenetic analysis on the fungus Neurospora crassa; in this fungus Beadle had demonstrated the gene-enzyme relationship for the first time. The study was conducted at Stanford University, where McClintock determined the karyotype of the fungus as well as its life cycle. Since then, N. crassa has been a model organism in genetic studies.
  • was awarded several times

    Due to the high level of her scientific work, she was awarded several times, entering the National Academy of Sciences in 1944
  • Nobel Prize

    His group was a mixture of plant breeders and cytologists, and consisted of Charles R. Burnham, Marcus Rhoades, George Wells Beadle (Nobel prize in 1958 for his work on genes that control metabolism) and Harriet Creighton. Rollins Adams Emerson, the head of the department, supported his work, although he was not a cytologist.
  • When he died

    (90 years old)
    United States flag Huntington, New York, United States