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Wilhelm Johannsen

Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen
Wilhelm Johannsen 1857-1927.jpg
Born (1857-02-03)3 February 1857
Elsinore, Denmark
Died 11 November 1927(1927-11-11) (aged 70)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Nationality Danish
Fields Genetics
Plant physiology
Institutions University of Copenhagen
Alma mater University of Copenhagen
Known for proving the constancy of the genome
defining gene, genotype and phenotype

Wilhelm Johannsen (3 February 1857 – 11 November 1927) was a Danish botanist, plant physiologist, and geneticist. He is best known for coining the terms phenotype and genotype.

He was born in Copenhagen. While very young, he was apprenticed to a pharmacist and worked in Denmark and Germany beginning in 1872 until passing his pharmacist's exam in 1879. In 1881, he became assistant in the chemistry department at the Carlsberg Laboratory under the chemist Johan Kjeldahl. Johannsen studied the metabolism of dormancy and germination in seeds, tubers and buds. He showed that dormancy could be broken by various anesthetic compounds, such as diethyl ether and chloroform.

In 1892, he was appointed lecturer at Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University and later became professor of botany and plant physiology. He taught plant physiology. His most well-known research concerned so-called pure lines of the self-fertile common bean. He was able to show that even in populations homozygous for all traits, i.e. without genetic variation, seed size followed a normal distribution. This was attributable to resource provision to the mother plant and to the position of seeds in pods and of pods on the plant. This led him to coin the terms phenotype and genotype.


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