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Eduard Strasburger (1844–1912): founder of modern plant cell biology

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Abstract

Eduard Strasburger, director of the Botany Institute and the Botanical Garden at the University of Bonn from 1881 to 1912, was one of the most admirable scientists in the field of plant biology, not just as the founder of modern plant cell biology but in addition as an excellent teacher who strongly believed in “education through science.” He contributed to plant cell biology by discovering the discrete stages of karyokinesis and cytokinesis in algae and higher plants, describing cytoplasmic streaming in different systems, and reporting on the growth of the pollen tube into the embryo sac and guidance of the tube by synergides. Strasburger raised many problems which are hot spots in recent plant cell biology, e.g., structure and function of the plasmodesmata in relation to phloem loading (Strasburger cells) and signaling, mechanisms of cell plate formation, vesicle trafficking as a basis for most important developmental processes, and signaling related to fertilization.

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Acknowledgment

This paper was presented as an invited lecture at the 5th Conference of the Polish Society of Experimental Plant Biology. It served as introduction to the session “E. Strasburger Day—Cellular Level” which was organized by Profs. Beata Zagórska-Marek (Wrocław University, Poland) and Przemysław Wojtaszek (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany (IZMB), University of Bonn, Kirschallee 1, 53125, Bonn, Germany

    Dieter Volkmann, František Baluška & Diedrik Menzel

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  1. Dieter Volkmann
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  2. František Baluška
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  3. Diedrik Menzel
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Correspondence to Dieter Volkmann.

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Volkmann, D., Baluška, F. & Menzel, D. Eduard Strasburger (1844–1912): founder of modern plant cell biology. Protoplasma 249, 1163–1172 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-012-0406-6

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