Konstantin Merezhkovsky
| Konstantin Mereschkowski | |
|---|---|
c. 1900
|
|
| Born |
4 August 1855 Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia |
| Died | 9 January 1921 (aged 65) Geneva, Switzerland |
| Citizenship | Russian |
| Fields |
Lichens Diatoms Hydrozoa |
| Institutions | University of Kazan |
| Alma mater | University of St Petersburg |
| Known for | Theory of symbiogenesis |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Mereschk. |
| Spouse | Olga Petrovna Sultanova |
Konstantin Sergeevich Mereschkowski (Russian: Константи́н Серге́евич Мережко́вский; 4 August 1855 [O.S. 23 July] – 9 January 1921) was a prominent Russian biologist and botanist, active mainly around Kazan, whose research on lichens led him to propose the theory of symbiogenesis – that larger, more complex cells (of eukaryotes) evolved from the symbiotic relationship between less complex ones. He presented this theory in 1910, in his Russian work, The Theory of Two Plasms as the Basis of Symbiogenesis, a New Study or the Origins of Organisms, although the fundamentals of the idea already had appeared in his earlier 1905 work, The nature and origins of chromatophores in the plant kingdom.
Konstantin was born in Saint Petersburg, one of six sons and three daughters in the Mereschkowski family. His father Sergey Ivanovich served as a senior official in several Russian local governors' cabinets (including that of I.D. Talyzin in Orenburg) before entering Alexander II's court office as a Privy Councillor. His mother Varvara Vasilyevna (née Tcherkasova) was a daughter of a senior Saint Petersburg security official, and was fond of arts and literature. The writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1866–1941) was one of his younger brothers.
From 1875 to 1880 he worked for his degree at the University of St Petersburg, travelling north to the White Sea to examine marine invertebrates and discovering a genus of Hydrozoa. On graduating he travelled to France and Germany, meeting famous scientists, publishing on anthropology and animal pigments while in Paris.
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