Genetic information of n k rings. Presentation on the topic "Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov". Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov

KOLTSOV, NIKOLAY KONSTANTINOVICH(1872–1940), Russian biologist, author of the idea of ​​matrix synthesis of “hereditary molecules.” Born on July 15 (8), 1872 in Moscow in the family of an accountant for a large fur company. At the age of eight he entered the Moscow gymnasium, from which he graduated with a gold medal. In his youth, he collected plants, collected seeds and insects, walked throughout the Moscow province, and later throughout the Crimea. In 1890 he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, where he specialized in comparative anatomy and comparative embryology. Koltsov’s leader during this period was the head of the school of Russian zoologists M.A. Menzbir. In 1894 he took part in the IX Congress of Russian Naturalists and Doctors, where he made a report The importance of cartilaginous centers in the development of the vertebrate pelvis and then executed basic research Hind limb girdle and hind limbs of vertebrates, for which he was awarded a gold medal.

After graduating from the university (1894), Koltsov was left there to prepare for a professorship and after three years of studies and successful completion six master's exams was sent abroad for two years. He worked in laboratories in Germany and at marine biological stations in Italy. Collected material served as the basis for his master's thesis, which Koltsov defended in 1901.

Even during his studies, Koltsov's interests began to turn from comparative anatomy to cytology. Having received the right to a privatdocent course after returning from a business trip abroad, he begins to lecture precisely on this subject. In 1902, Koltsov was again sent abroad, where for two years he worked in the largest biological laboratories and at marine stations. These years coincided with the period when in biology there was a decline in interest in purely descriptive morphological sciences and new trends began to emerge - experimental cytology, biological chemistry, developmental mechanics, genetics, which opened up completely new approaches to knowledge organic world. Koltsov’s communication with the largest cytologists in Europe (W. Fleming, O. Büchli), as well as with R. Goldschmidt and M. Hartmann, finally confirmed his decision to “move from the study of morphology on dead preparations to the study of life processes on living objects.” While on his second trip abroad, he performed the first part of his classical Research on cell shape – A study on the sperm of decapods in connection with general considerations regarding cell organization(1905), intended for a doctoral dissertation. This work together with the second part Research on cell shape, published in 1908, was established in science as the “Koltsov principle” of shape-determining cellular skeletons (cytoskeletons).

Returning to Russia in 1903, Koltsov, without stopping scientific research, began intensive pedagogical and scientific-organizational work. The cytology course, which began back in 1899, grew into a hitherto unknown course. general biology. The second course taught by Koltsov, “Systematic Zoology,” was extremely popular among students. The “Big Zoological Workshop” created by Koltsov, where students were accepted by competition, formed a single whole with the lectures.

Koltsov was an active member of the circle headed by the Bolshevik P.K. Sternberg. During the days of the 1905 revolution, the center of the circle’s work was moved from the observatory where Sternberg worked to Koltsov’s office. Collective protests and petitions were drawn up here, appeals from the student committee were printed on an underground mimeograph, and leaflets were stored. Koltsov’s state of mind during this period is best characterized by his book In memory of the fallen. Victims from among Moscow students in October and December days(1906). Published on the opening day of the first Duma, the book was confiscated on the same day, but more than half of the circulation had already been sold out. Soon after the suppression of the revolution, Koltsov’s doctoral dissertation was supposed to be defended, but he refused to defend it “on days like these, when behind closed doors" In 1909 for participation in political activity Koltsov was suspended from classes, and in 1911, together with other leading teachers of Moscow University, resigned and until 1918 he taught at the Higher Women's Courses and at the Moscow People's University Shanyavsky. In the latter, he created an excellent laboratory and trained a galaxy of famous biologists (M.M. Zavadovsky, A.S. Serebrovsky, S.N. Skadovsky, G.I. Roskin, etc.).

From the study of the supporting skeletal elements of the cell, Koltsov moves on to the study of contractile structures. The third part of it appears Research on cell shape – Studies on the contractility of the stalk of Zoothamnium alternans(1911), and then works on the influence of cations (1912) and hydrogen ions (1915) on physiological processes in the cell. These studies had important to establish the so-called physiological ion series, and also attracted the attention of Russian biologists to the most important issue active role of the environment and marked the beginning of a whole period in the development of physical and chemical biology in Russia. In 1916, for the contribution to science made by Koltsov by this time, he was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 1917, with funds from the Moscow Society of Scientific Institutes, the Institute of Experimental Biology was created for Koltsov, which for a long time remained the only one not related to teaching biology research institution countries. Here Koltsov had the opportunity to “combine a number of the latest trends in modern experimental biology in order to study certain problems from different points of view and, if possible, different methods" We talked about developmental physiology, genetics, biochemistry and cytology. The scientific team of the Institute initially consisted of Koltsov’s students, and then was replenished with prominent biologists from other scientific schools. IN different time A.S. Serebrovsky, N.V. Timofeev-Resovsky, S.S. Chetverikov, G.V. Epstein, N.P. Dubinin, G.V. Lopashov, I.A. Rapoport, P.F. worked here. Rokitsky, B.N. Sidorov, V.P. Efroimson and others. In the post-revolutionary years, many employees worked for free or shared one rate between two. In 1920, with the active participation of Koltsov, the Russian Eugenics Society arose, at the same time a eugenics department was organized at the Institute of Experimental Biology, which launched research on human medical genetics (the first work on the study of blood groups, the content of catalase in it, etc.), as well as on such issues of anthropogenetics as the inheritance of hair and eye color, variability and heredity of complex traits in identical twins, etc. The department had its first medical genetic consultation. The first in the USSR were started at the Institute theoretical research on the genetics of Drosophila.

In 1927, at the 3rd Congress of Zoologists, Anatomists and Histologists, Koltsov made a report Physico-chemical basis of morphology, in which he expanded the general biological principles “Omne vinum ex ovo” and “Omnis cellula ex cellula”, proclaiming the paradoxical principle at that time “Omnis molecule ex molecule” - “Every molecule from a molecule.” In this case, not just any molecules were meant - we were talking about those “hereditary molecules”, on the reproduction of which, according to the idea first expressed by Koltsov, the morphophysiological continuity of the organization of living beings rests. Koltsov imagined these “hereditary molecules” in the form of giant protein macromolecules that make up the axial genetically active structure of the chromosomes, or, in Koltsov’s terminology, the genoneme. Genetic information was represented as encoded not by the alternation of DNA nucleotides, but by a sequence of amino acids in a highly polymeric protein chain. Koltsov associated the transcription process with the replication of the protein part of the nucleoprotein basis of chromosomes. He was misled by the visual disappearance of thymonucleic acid (i.e. DNA) in late oogenesis and in giant chromosomes.

In December 1936, a special session of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences was convened to combat “bourgeois genetics.” N.I. Vavilov, A.S. Serebrovsky, G.J. Möller, N.K. Koltsov, M.M. Zavadovsky, G.D. Karpechenko, G.A. Levitsky, N.P. spoke in defense of genetics. Dubinin. Against “bourgeois genetics” - T.D. Lysenko, N.V. Tsitsin, I.I. Present. Koltsov, not sharing Vavilov’s optimism that “the building of genetics remained unshaken,” addressed a letter to the President of VASKhNIL A.I. Muralov, where he wrote about the responsibility of all scientists for the state of science in the country. The answer was made on March 26, 1937 at general meeting asset of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, dedicated to the results of the plenum of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Muralov attacked Koltsov’s “politically harmful” theories on genetics and eugenics. Work on eugenics served as the main pretext for the persecution of Koltsov. On March 4, 1939, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences considered the issue “On strengthening the fight against existing pseudoscientific perversions” and created a commission to familiarize itself with the work of the Koltsov Institute. They demanded that Koltsov, in a “generally accepted form”, “give... an analysis of his false teachings in... scientific journal or, better yet, in all magazines... having fulfilled an elementary duty to the party.” But Koltsov did not do this, and he was fired from his post as director.

The scientist’s archive contains many unfinished works. First of all, this is part four Research on cell shape, on which Koltsov worked intermittently for 20 years and which is devoted to experimental studies of the physicochemical foundations of morpho-physiological phenomena that are observed in the cells of effector organs. The keynote speech “Chemistry and Morphology”, dedicated to a new interpretation of cellular structures in their statics and dynamics, remained unfinished.

In 1976, the Institute of Developmental Biology of the USSR Academy of Sciences was named after Koltsov.

N.K. Koltsov in 1922. Portrait by sculptor N.A. Andreeva.
(Photo by E.V. Ramensky)

In 2003, the world will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of J. Watson and F. Crick's article on the structure of DNA. However, the hypothesis about the matrix organization of the “substance of heredity” is the largest biological idea of ​​the 20th century. was born not in the USA and Great Britain, but in Russia. More precisely, in the Soviet Union. Its author was Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov. However, in the USSR the name of one of the greatest biologists of the 20th century. was erased from the history of science for many years.

One hundred and twenty years ago, F. Dostoevsky complained that Russia did not yet have a science equal to its famous literature. But by that time our country had already become a powerful stronghold of Darwinism. By the end of the nineteenth century. Russian biology has already counted more than one major discovery. These were the works of I. Mechnikov, I. Sechenov and I. Pavlov, the discovery of double fertilization in flowering plants by S. Navashin, chemosynthesis by S. Vinogradsky, viruses by D. Ivanovsky, the invention of the chromatography method by the botanist M. Tsvet, K. Merezhkovsky’s hypothesis about the origin of cellular organelles from symbiont bacteria and much more. Russia became the homeland new science– soil science (V. Dokuchaev). At the very beginning of the twentieth century. among the first laureates of the newly established Nobel Prize were already Pavlov and Mechnikov.

When Dostoevsky was publishing “A Writer’s Diary,” Kolya Koltsov had just entered the gymnasium. He was born in 1872 in Moscow into a family with average income and strong moral foundations. Lost his father early. His mother, a merchant's daughter, was an educated woman, and his maternal grandfather was known as a famous polyglot. The Russian merchants were by no means represented only by the “Tit Titychs Wild”. Among the merchants there were a sufficient number of smart, educated people who generously donated to charity, to support education, science and art.

Nikolai Koltsov taught himself to read at the age of 4, was interested in plants and animals, and, after graduating from high school, in 1890 he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. There his teacher was a zoologist, Professor M. Menzbier. Koltsov, while still a student, received a gold medal for his work on the development of the girdle of the hind limbs of vertebrates.

After completing a university course in Moscow, Koltsov spent 1896–1897. at foreign universities and at hydrobiological (then called zoological) stations near the warm seas in France and Italy. He prepared his master's thesis (which he defended in 1901) on the development of the lamprey's head. The opportunity to work with living objects, personal communication with famous scientists from Europe and America, friendship and disputes with young researchers - all this led to a sharp turn in Koltsov’s scientific interests. From comparative anatomy he moves on to the study of the cell, defining this direction as “substance and form”, and in his last, unfinished work (late 1940) – as “chemistry and morphology”. Koltsov was convinced: it was necessary to create a new, holistic picture of biology, relying on the achievements of chemistry, physics and mathematics. The scientist asks the question: “Has our generation put forward an idea that is not inferior to Darwin’s?” Both he and his students largely succeeded in defining the face of biological science in the 20th century. It remains for the present century.

Koltsov’s first publication in a new direction: “On the shape-determining elastic formations in cells” (1903), was carried out on the sperm of decapod crustaceans Inachus scorpio. He developed this direction on various objects in a large work, published in several parts, “Research on the Form of Cells” (1905–1929). This work included morphological, physiological and biophysical directions. I have never before encountered in works about Koltsov the realization that he was the first in the world to show the existence of the cytoskeleton as a special structure. Only in the 60–70s. XX century by using electron microscope were able to identify the types of cytoskeletal proteins that form microtubules, microfilaments and intermediate filaments, which determine the shape of cells and their motility. Now no one remembers Koltsov, although his foreign colleagues before the First World War called these ideas “Koltsov’s principle of cell organization,” and this principle was included in textbooks, monographs and lecture courses. And in Russia, a scientist who was formally only a master’s degree was “disgraced” because of his political views and participation in the 1905 revolution; for these works in the 1910s. was nominated for full member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. The condition was Koltsov’s move to the capital and occupation of the department created “for him.” But the scientist refused to leave Moscow, where his school of experimental biologists had already developed, and became “just” a corresponding member (i.e., a nonresident member) of the Academy of Sciences.

Diagram of a chromosome before cell division, according to Koltsov. Four identical (2+2) polymer molecules are visible - genonemes

Koltsov was the first to realize and clearly express that the infinite variety of biological forms appears to be based on a limited set of macromolecules. For years he worked towards the idea of ​​matrix reproduction of hereditary molecules. Koltsov understood that hereditary structures are stable and linear. They have vector properties (expressed modern language– a strictly defined sequence of alternation of monomers in a polymer molecule). In his lectures in 1903, a scheme for the crossing of chromosomes with subsequent gene exchange was already predicted - what was later called crossing over and was included in textbooks as the most important pattern of transmission of genetic information.

Seventy-five years ago, in December 1927, at the III All-Union Congress of Zoologists, Anatomists and Histologists in Leningrad, the idea of ​​matrix reproduction was made public for the first time. In 1928, she also appeared in the magazine Biologisches Zentralblatt. It contained such main provisions as the concept of giant polymer molecules and the matrix method of doubling them. Small nuclear sap molecules assemble complementarily on an existing template and are then “stitched” into a polymeric protein molecule, a copy of the template. ABOUT nucleic acids Oh, how they didn’t know anything about polymers back then. It is important that the same one was drawn double helix, which will be opened in 1953 by Watson and Crick. Genes, according to Koltsov, constitute autonomous parts of this molecule. They are represented by different side radicals of a monotonous giant chain, which Koltsov, an excellent teacher, briefly and biologically called genoneme- a thread of genes. The term is incomparably better than the modern one - “deoxyribonucleic acid macromolecule”. A constant, conservative inherited matrix is ​​not destroyed and does not arise anew, it passes from parents to descendants. Of course, the scientist believed, it is capable of undergoing abrupt changes and mutating. The mutation can be caused, for example, by the alkylation reaction of the side radical, i.e. replacing hydrogen with methyl (–CH3). 20 years later, Koltsov’s student I. Rapoport will demonstrate the super-mutagenic properties of alkylating agents. But even world science in the 50s did not suspect the alkylation of nucleic acids and methylase enzymes, and Koltsov, almost 35 years before their discovery, had already foreseen this reaction in his hypothesis! It can be considered that the development of molecular biology began with his speech in 1927. Or maybe it would be more correct to consider 1903 as the year of her birth, when the scientist showed the existence in cells of an internal protein skeleton that is variable, depending on environmental conditions?

The history of the study of hereditary molecules continued in Germany, where in 1925 Koltsova’s employee N.V. Timofeev-Resovsky was sent to “teach the Germans” genetics. And this despite the fact that in 1913, at the First International Genetic Congress, Russia was represented by one geneticist - Finn Federley. Twelve years later, our country has already become, along with the United States, a powerful center of world genetics. In 1935 N.V. Timofeev-Resovsky with German physicist co-authors, K.G. Zimmer and M. Delbrück, created a target theory, and, using reverse X-ray mutations in Drosophila, were able to estimate the physical, molecular dimensions of the gene. But there was still no data on the chemical nature of the genes. The development of the idea continued after World War II. Several names need to be mentioned: E. Chargaff, who used the chromatographic method of M. Tsvet to analyze the four nitrogenous bases in nucleic acids, Rosalind Franklin, who was the first to obtain an X-ray diffraction pattern of a DNA crystal, as well as our former compatriot, physicist Georgy Gamow, who did a lot in the USA to decipher the coding method proteins in the structure of nucleic acids. But the main prize Nobel Prize, during these many years of work, D. Watson, F. Crick and M. Wilkinson, the leader of Franklin, who died early, managed to “disrupt” it in 1962. But in our country, the Lysenkoites cursed the concept of “gene,” and biologists could only joke darkly: “guess an indecent three-letter word.”

The golden age of Russian biology, which began in the 19th century, continued into the 20s. XX century It was a time of remarkable discoveries: homological series and centers of origin cultivated plants N.Vavilov, nomogenesis by L.Berg, works by I.Pavlov, V.Vernadsky, A.Chizhevsky, microbiologists G.Nadson, V.Omelyansky, ecologist V.Sukachev and many others.

It is difficult, sometimes impossible, to separate what Koltsov created from what his students did. Architect K. Melnikov defined creativity as “it’s mine.” This was not the case with Koltsov. And yet it is clear that many years of research on the shape and mobility of cells (cytoskeleton) and the matrix hypothesis are his and only his achievements. And besides, there was brilliant teaching at the Moscow and People's (Shanyavsky) universities, as well as at the Higher Women's (Bestuzhev) courses. Until the end of his days, his students remembered how the professor read his lectures (he prepared them anew every year), how under Koltsov’s hands images of organisms, cells and structures created with the help of colored crayons appeared, as if alive. He established departments, laboratories, experimental stations, several journals, scientific societies and, of course, the Institute of Experimental Biology (IEB).

The building on Vorontsovo Pole, 6, where the Institute of Experimental Biology was located for 30 years (since 1925). (Photo by E.V. Ramensky)

IEB was created in 1917 with money from the publisher and philanthropist A.F. Marx on Sivtsev Vrazhek, 41. At first, he had 3 employees on his staff. His main task was to spread genetics in Russia.

In 1925, thanks to the support of N. Semashko and M. Gorky, the IEB received a new building and new staff. And although, in comparison with the St. Petersburg institutes of those years - the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing N.I. Vavilov and Koltushami I.P. Pavlov - Koltsov’s institute was small, the famous German biologist R. Goldschmidt called Koltsov’s brainchild “brilliant”.

One of the most important areas This institution was education - dissemination in our country, incl. among agronomists, veterinarians, doctors, ideas of modern biology.

The merits of Koltsov and his students in the fight against Lysenko’s pseudoscience are enormous. In 1938, Lysenko's offensive against the IEB began. N.K. Koltsov was removed from the post of director, but, having taken the blow upon himself, he managed to preserve his favorite brainchild - the Institute.

The Koltsov Institute can be likened to a choir, the conductor of which ensures that every unique voice can be heard. The teacher determined the direction of the throw and often made the first powerful jerk himself, then passing the baton to the students. The formulation of the tasks was distinguished by its novelty and unprecedented breadth of coverage. But Koltsov refused to put his name on his collaborators’ publications, although it was often he who conceived, thought through and finalized their work.

Back in 1916, Koltsov included experimental research into the evolution of organisms—modeling speciation—in the future directions of work of the IEB. He planned to test the effect of strong physical and chemical factors. First of all, X-ray radiation was tested (in the experiments of D. Romashov and N. Timofeev-Resovsky). In Russia at that time there were no genetically verified lines of Drosophila with certain signaling genes. There was a civil war going on. We were hungry, there was no firewood or our own X-ray machine. The Koltsovites received positive results, but, insuring themselves against Lamarckian errors, did not make their data public. In 1922, J. Möller arrived from the USA, the first to break through the scientific blockade of the USSR. He brought standard lines Drosophila melanogaster from New York and plunged into the idea-rich, open environment of the Koltso circle. Returning to the USA, he quickly did a paper on mutations in Drosophila under the influence of X-rays and published it in 1927, beating the Moscow Koltsovo team and Timofeev-Resovsky, who was establishing work in Germany. For this work in 1946 Möller received his Nobel Prize. I have never heard or read any reproaches about this from Koltsovo residents. Soviet geneticists loved Möller, he spent more than one year here, but the facts are stubborn.

But the championship in the study of mutations under the influence chemical compounds the Koltsovo residents did not give in - starting with the work of V.V. Sakharov in 1932, and, mainly, thanks to the brilliant completion in the classical works of I.A. Rapoport, awarded the Lenin Prize in 1984.

How does the formation of species proceed? natural conditions? The theory of speciation was also created within the walls of the IEB - by the group of S. Chetverikov. Natural populations of Drosophila from the Caucasus to Germany were examined - and the facts obtained allowed us to say that new species arise due to spontaneous mutations that accumulate in any population. Population genetics has made it possible to bridge the gap between the laboratory science of genetics and evolutionary theory, built by Darwin only on data on macroevolution, i.e. on the study of fossil remains of organisms of past eras.

In the 30s, the Koltsovo team (A. Serebrovsky, N. Dubinin) were the first in the world to discover the complexity of gene structure. The IEB began work on human congenital diseases. In addition to genetics and cytogenetics, they successfully studied cell structure, developmental biology, sex regulation, hormone therapy, zoopsychology, the biological effect of cosmic rays (with the help of stratospheric balloons), and were engaged in scientific microcinematography...

Koltsov saw decades ahead. From him you can read about the great future of X-ray diffraction analysis of the structure of biomolecules, find a prediction of protein synthesis in vitro using appropriate seed matrices, foresee the decisive role of genomics in constructing the natural phylogenetic tree of organisms...

Koltsov and his scientific descendants greatly influenced the area applied research in the USSR, from the creation of therapeutic drugs (the anticancer crucin and a whole set of producers of various antibiotics for the pharmaceutical industry) to ecology, soil science and pedagogy. From productive varieties and breeds for Agriculture to medical (genetic) counseling, which grew out of the ideas of eugenics, the passion for which Koltsov was blamed for even many years after his death. At the Koltsov Institute, the now living G.V. Lopashov performed nuclear transplantation back in the 1940s - a micro-operation on which the cloning of organisms is based. The Lysenkoites banned the publication of this work! In 2000 international project The Human Genome was recognized as the highest scientific achievement. Isn't this a triumph of Koltsov's ideas?

Among Koltsov’s students there are hundreds of famous researchers, academicians and laureates. Among them were those nominated for the Nobel Prize: N. Timofeev-Resovsky (1950) and I. Rapoport (1962). Foreign “Nobel laureates” are also indebted to Koltsov’s genius: J. Möller (1946), M. Delbrück, Timofeev’s German student (1969), and Delbrück’s student J. Watson (1962). It is significant that after the trampling down of Soviet biology in 1948, it was Koltsov’s scientific descendants who managed to rise to the world level: in chemical mutagenesis - I. Rapoport, in the regulation of sex - B. Astaurov and V. Strunnikov, in new areas of molecular genetics and “jumping genes” » – R. Khesin, G. Georgiev and V. Gvozdev.

The matrix hypothesis, experimental mutagenesis and population genetics - this is the classic, main contribution to biology by Koltsov and his students. According to N.V. Timofeev-Resovsky, this triad is the second, after Darwinian selection, general fundamental natural-historical principle. The synthetic theory of evolution—Darwinism of the 20th century—rests on it.

“A thought not inferior to Darwin’s” was put forward and experimentally proven by Koltsov, over the years it was universally recognized and largely determined the face of twentieth-century biology.

Personality in genetics: 20-30s of the twentieth century

(“The Golden Age” of Russian genetics – from Vavilov to “Vavilovia the Beautiful”)

Koltsov Nikolai Konstantinovich (1872-1940) – biologist; Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences (1916), Academician of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1935); Honored Scientist.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov was born on July 3 (15), 1872 (the date is given on the basis of an extract from the metric book (ARAN. F.450. Op.2. D.1) in Moscow. The family was related to K.S. Stanislavsky and S.S. and N.S. Chetverikov. In 1890 he entered Moscow University, where he specialized in comparative anatomy and comparative embryology.

Upon graduation from the university (1894) with a 1st degree diploma and gold
medal, N.K. Koltsov was left with him to prepare for the professorship. In 1897 he was sent abroad for two years. At that time he worked in Germany and at Mediterranean biological stations. The collected material served as the basis for a master's thesis on the metamerism of the vertebrate head, which over time was recognized as a classic. Her defense took place in 1901.

From 1900 to 1911 - private assistant professor at Moscow University. During this period N.K. Koltsov began to implement a program to study the shape of the cell, which, as was then believed, consisted of a shell and homogeneous structureless contents, a kind of “living substance”. N.K. Koltsov proved in his works that the shape of a cell depends on the shape of the colloidal particles that form the cell skeleton.

In 1902 N.K. Koltsov was again sent abroad, where he worked for two years in major biological laboratories.

Returning to Russia in 1903, N.K. Koltsov took up pedagogical and scientific-organizational work. In 1903 -1918. he taught at the Moscow Higher Women's Courses in the Natural Sciences.

At the Higher Women's Courses Gerye N.K. Koltsov met student Maria Polievktovna Sadovnikova (sister of the future academician, organic chemist P. P. Shorygin), who soon became his wife (1907).

From 1908 to 1919 N.K. Koltsov is a professor at the City People's University of L.A. Shanyavsky. From 1917 to 1930 - Professor at Moscow State University (participated in the organization of the Institute of Comparative Anatomy) and from 1922 to 1927. - Professor of the 2nd Moscow State University.

December 5, 1916, N.K. Koltsov was elected corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the biological category of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

N.K. Koltsov largely shared Political Views people's socialists, therefore after February revolution 1917 he joined organized by a group liberal public figures discussing issues of restoring the socio-economic life of Russia. The Cheka fabricated the case of the so-called “Tactical Center”. In August 1920, a high-profile political process began, as a result of which N.K. Koltsov, among the 20 accused, was sentenced to death, but was soon released: the sentence was overturned personally by V.I. Lenin thanks to the petitions of P.A. Kropotkin, M. Gorky, A.V. Lunacharsky and others.

In 1917, he organized and headed the Institute of Experimental Biology in Moscow. (In 1938 N.K. Koltsov resigned from his post as head of the Institute of Experimental Biology, to which he devoted 22 years of his life). In 1918 he headed the Genetic Department of KEPS Russian Academy Sci. In 1918 N.K. Koltsov organized the Anikov genetic station. She specialized in farm animal genetics. In the 1920s The Russian Eugenics Society was created. Having a broad understanding of eugenics, he included in it the compilation of genealogies, geography of diseases, vital statistics, social hygiene, etc. Speaking about eugenics, the scientist was engaged in human genetics and the complex biosocial study of man. From 1922 to 1925 N.K. Koltsov taught at the Medical-Pedological Institute of the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR. From 1930 to 1933 he headed the laboratory of the All-Union Institute of Animal Husbandry of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Main works on comparative anatomy of vertebrates, experimental cytology, physical and chemical biology, and genetics. The first to develop a hypothesis molecular structure and matrix reproduction of chromosomes, which anticipated the fundamental principles of modern molecular biology and genetics.

In 1933 N.K. Koltsov was elected an honorary member of the Edinburgh Royal Society, in 1934 he was awarded the title of Honored Scientist of the RSFSR, in 1935 he became a Doctor of Zoology and a full member of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences. In 1936, Koltsov published a collection of his works relating to the period 1903-1935. under common name"Organization of the Cell", where he presented an original theoretical and biological concept.

The persecution of genetics in the 1930s affected N.K. Koltsov and his Institute. In April 1939, he was removed from the post of director, and the name of the scientist was defamed in the press.

In the fall of 1940 N.K. Koltsov went to Leningrad to read the report “Chemistry and Morphology” at the anniversary meeting of the Moscow Society of Natural Scientists. On December 2, 1940, he died at the European Hotel from a massive heart attack. His wife, Maria Polievktovna, wrote about the death of N.K. Koltsova to Moscow and committed suicide.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov(July 3 (15), 1872, Moscow - December 2, 1940, Leningrad) - Russian biologist, founder of the Russian Soviet school of experimental biology, author of the fundamental idea of ​​matrix synthesis of chromosomes. Corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1916 (USSR Academy of Sciences - since 1925), academician of the All-Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1935). Honored Scientist of the RSFSR (1934).

Biography

Born into a Moscow family of an accountant for a large fur company.

In 1890 he graduated from the 6th Moscow Gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, where he initially specialized in the field of comparative anatomy and comparative embryology. Scientific supervisor Koltsov during this period was one of the leading Russian zoologists M. A. Menzbier.

After graduating (in 1895) from the university with a 1st degree diploma and a gold medal for the essay “The Girdle of the Hind Limbs and the Hind Limbs of Animals” (1894), he was recommended by Menzbier to remain “to prepare for a professorship” in the department of comparative anatomy.

Since the autumn of 1897, he studied abroad: in Flemming's histological laboratory in Kiel and at various zoological stations - in Naples, Villafranca, Roskov.

Since 1899, Koltsov has been a private assistant professor at Moscow University. In 1901 he defended his master's thesis “Development of the head of the lamprey.” This work outlined the outlines of a completely new direction in biology - a physical and chemical explanation of the form of living formations. In 1902-1903, Koltsov again worked abroad: in laboratories in Germany (with Büchli and Flemming) and at marine biological stations in Naples and Villafranca. While studying physical and chemical research intracellular structures, he developed the so-called “Koltsov principle”, according to which the shape of the cell depends on the shape of the colloidal particles that form the cellular skeleton (cytoskeleton). The work “Research on the sperm of decapods in connection with general considerations regarding the organization of the cell” (1905), begun on his second trip abroad, was intended for a doctoral dissertation.

At the beginning of 1906, Koltsov refused to defend his doctoral dissertation, supporting the strike of Moscow University students that began at that time. On the opening day of the first Duma, he published a brochure “In Memory of the Fallen. Victims from among Moscow students in October and December days"; the book was confiscated on the same day, although more than half of the circulation had already sold out. All this caused the displeasure and anger of his supervisor, and later the displeasure of the university rector; during 1906-1909, through the efforts of M. A. Menzbier, he was limited in teaching and scientific activities, as a result of which he was forced to actually transfer his scientific and pedagogical activities from the walls of Moscow University: already from 1903 he was a professor at the Higher Women's Courses, and from 1908 he became a professor at the Shanyavsky People's University, where in 1912 he organized the first educational and research laboratory of experimental biology and taught until 1918. Speaking for university freedoms in 1911, as a sign of disagreement with the policy of the Minister of Public Education L.A. Kasso, he left the university along with large group professors and associate professors (Casso case). Koltsov returned to Moscow University only after February 1917 and taught there until 1929.

In 1916, he was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the biological category of the department of physical and mathematical sciences (Russian - since 1917, USSR Academy of Sciences - since 1925); Academician of VASKhNIL (1935).

Since the inception of the journal Nature in 1912, he has been its co-editor, and since 1914 - editor.

In the summer of 1917, with funds from the Moscow Society of Scientific Institutes, the Institute of Experimental Biology was created, headed by N.K. Koltsov. All of its main scientific achievements of the post-revolutionary period are associated with work at this institute. It was the first multidisciplinary institute, independent of higher education educational institutions, which brought together biologists various specialties- geneticists, physiologists, cytologists, etc. By the 1930s, it had become a recognized world-class scientific center. The persecution of genetics, naturally, could not but affect the institute. In 1938, the institute was transferred from the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR to the USSR Academy of Sciences, reorganized and renamed the Institute of Cytology, Histology and Embryology, and the following year Koltsov was removed from the post of director.

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Koltsov was a “merchant’s son”, born in Moscow into the family of an accountant for a large fur company. He brilliantly graduated from the Moscow Gymnasium. In 1890 he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, where he specialized in the field of comparative anatomy and comparative embryology. Koltsov’s scientific supervisor during this period was the head of the school of Russian zoologists M. A. Menzbier.

In 1895, Menzbier recommended that Koltsov leave the university “to prepare for a professorship.” Since 1899, Koltsov has been a private assistant professor at Moscow University. After three years of studies and successfully passing six master's exams, Koltsov was sent abroad for two years. He worked in laboratories in Germany and at marine biological stations in Italy. The collected material served as the basis for a master's thesis, which Koltsov defended in 1901. Koltsov’s works on the biophysics of the cell and, especially, on the factors that determine the shape of the cell, have become classic and are included in textbooks.

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But here are their most terrible actions: in the midst of civil war they... wrote works, compiled notes, projects. Yes, "experts" state law, financial sciences, economic relations, judicial affairs and public education", they wrote works! (And, as you might guess, without relying in any way on the previous works of Lenin, Trotsky and Bukharin...) Prof. S. A. Kotlyarevsky - about the federal structure of Russia, V. I. Stempkovsky - on the agrarian question (and, probably, without collectivization...), V. S. Muralevich - about public education V future Russia, N. N. Vinogradarsky - about economics. And the (great) biologist N.K. Koltsov (who had seen nothing from his homeland except persecution and execution) allowed these bourgeois whales to gather for conversations at his institute. (N.D. Kondratyev also ended up here, who in 1931 would be finally condemned under the TCH.)

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And he was sentenced by the Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal, among 19 accused, to death, but the execution was commuted, according to one source, to a suspended sentence imprisonment for 5 years, according to others, a concentration camp until the end of the civil war.

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Scientific activity

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