Martinus Beijerinck

Dutch microbiologist (1851–1931)

"Beijerinck" redirects here. For the lunar crater, see Beijerinck (crater).

Martinus Beijerinck

Born| 16 March 1851 (1851-03-16)

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Died| 1 January 1931 (1931-02) (aged 79)

Gorssel, Netherlands

Alma mater| Leiden University
Known for| One of the founders of virology, environmental microbiology and general microbiology
Conceptual discovery of virus (tobacco mosaic virus)
Enrichment culture
Biological nitrogen fixation
Sulfate-reducing bacteria
Nitrogen fixing bacteria
Azotobacter (Azotobacter chroococcum)
Rhizobium
Desulfovibrio desulfuricans (Spirillum desulfuricans)
Awards| Leeuwenhoek Medal (1905)
Scientific career
Fields| Microbiology
Institutions| Wageningen University
Delft School of Microbiology (founder)
The Laboratory of Microbiology in Delft, where Beijerinck worked from 1897 to 1921.

Martinus Willem Beijerinck (Dutch pronunciation: [mɑrˈtinʏs ˈʋɪləm ˈbɛiərɪŋk], 16 March 1851 – 1 January 1931) was a Dutch microbiologist and botanist who was one of the founders of virology and environmental microbiology. He is credited with the co-discovery of viruses (1898), which he called "contagium vivum fluidum".

## Life

[edit]

### Early life and education

[edit]

Born in Amsterdam, Beijerinck studied at the Technical School of Delft, where he was awarded the degree of biology in 1872. He obtained his Doctor of Science degree from the University of Leiden in 1877.[1]

At the time, Delft, then a Polytechnic, did not have the right to confer doctorates, so Leiden did this for them. He became a teacher in microbiology at the Agricultural School in Wageningen (now Wageningen University) and later at the Polytechnische Hogeschool Delft (Delft Polytechnic, currently Delft University of Technology) (from 1895). He established the Delft School of Microbiology. His studies of agricultural and industrial microbiology yielded fundamental discoveries in the field of biology. His achievements have been perhaps unfairly overshadowed by those of his contemporaries, Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur, because unlike them, Beijerinck never studied human disease.

In 1877, he wrote his first notable research paper, discussing plant galls. The paper later became the basis for his doctoral dissertation.[2]

In 1885 he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[3]

### Scientific career

[edit]

Beijerinck working in his laboratory

He is considered one of the founders of virology.[4][5][6][7] In 1898, he published results on the filtration experiments demonstrating that tobacco mosaic disease is caused by an infectious agent smaller than a bacterium.[8]

His results were in accordance with the similar observation made by Dmitri Ivanovsky in 1892.[9] Like Ivanovsky before him and Adolf Mayer, predecessor at Wageningen, Beijerinck could not culture the filterable infectious agent; however, he concluded that the agent can replicate and multiply in living plants. He named the new pathogen virus to indicate its non-bacterial nature. Beijerinck asserted that the virus was somewhat liquid in nature, calling it "contagium vivum fluidum" (contagious living fluid).[10] It was not until the first crystals of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) obtained by Wendell Stanley in 1935, the first electron micrographs of TMV produced in 1939 and the first X-ray crystallographic analysis of TMV performed in 1941 proved that the virus was particulate.

Nitrogen fixation,[11] the process by which diatomic nitrogen gas is converted to ammonium ions and becomes available to plants, was also investigated by Beijerinck. Bacteria perform nitrogen fixation, dwelling inside root nodules of certain plants (legumes). In addition to having discovered a biochemical reaction vital to soil fertility and agriculture, Beijerinck revealed this archetypical example of symbiosis between plants and bacteria.

Beijerinck discovered the phenomenon of bacterial sulfate reduction, a form of anaerobic respiration. He learned bacteria could use sulfate as a terminal electron acceptor, instead of oxygen. This discovery has had an important impact on our current understanding of biogeochemical cycles. Spirillum desulfuricans, now known as Desulfovibrio desulfuricans,[12] the first known sulfate-reducing bacterium, was isolated and described by Beijerinck.

Beijerinck invented the enrichment culture, a fundamental method of studying microbes from the environment. He is often incorrectly credited with framing the microbial ecology idea that "everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects", which was stated by Lourens Baas Becking.[13][14]

## Personal life

[edit]

Beijerinck was a socially eccentric figure. He was verbally abusive to students, never married, and had few professional collaborations. He was also known for his ascetic lifestyle and his view of science and marriage being incompatible. His low popularity with his students and their parents periodically depressed him, as he very much loved spreading his enthusiasm for biology in the classroom. After his retirement at the Delft School of Microbiology in 1921, at age 70, he moved to Gorssel where he lived for the rest of his life, together with his two sisters.[15]

## Recognition

[edit]

Beijerinckia (a genus of bacteria),[16] Beijerinckiaceae (a family of Hyphomicrobiales), and Beijerinck crater are named after him.

The M.W. Beijerinck Virology Prize (M.W. Beijerinck Virologie Prijs) is awarded in his honor.

## See also

[edit]

* History of virology
* Nitrification
* Clostridium beijerinckii
* Sergei Winogradsky

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Chung, K. T.; Ferris, D. H. (1996). "Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851–1931): Pioneer of General Microbiology" (PDF). ASM News. 62 (10). Washington, D.C.: American Society For Microbiology: 539––543. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
2. ^ Bos, L. (29 March 1999). "Beijerinck's Work on Tobacco Mosaic Virus: Historical Context and Legacy". Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences. 354 (1383): 675–685. doi:10.1098/rstb.1999.0420. PMC 1692537. PMID 10212948.
3. ^ "Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851 - 1931)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
4. ^ Lustig, Alice; Levine, Arnold J. (1992). "One Hundred Years of Virology". Journal of Virology. 66 (8). Washington, D.C.: 4629–4631. doi:10.1128/JVI.66.8.4629-4631.1992. PMC 241285. PMID 1629947.
5. ^ Bos, L. (1995). "The Embryonic Beginning of Virology: Unbiased Thinking and Dogmatic Stagnation". Archives of Virology. 140 (3): 613–619. doi:10.1007/bf01718437. PMID 7733832. S2CID 23685370.
6. ^ Zaitlin, Milton (1998). "The Discovery of the Causal Agent of the Tobacco Mosaic Disease" (PDF). In Kung, S. D.; Yang, S. F. (eds.). Discoveries in Plant Biology. Hong Kong: World Publishing Co. pp. 105–110. ISBN 978-981-02-1313-8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
7. ^ Lerner, K. L.; Lerner, B. W., eds. (2002). World of Microbiology and Immunology. Thomas Gage Publishing. ISBN 0-7876-6540-1. "Beijerinck asserted that the virus was liquid, but this theory was later disproved by Wendell Stanley, who demonstrated the particulate nature of viruses. Beijerinck, nevertheless, set the stage for twentieth-century virologists to uncover the secrets of viral pathogens now known to cause a wide range of plant and animal (including human) diseases"
8. ^ Beijerinck, M. W. (1898). "Über ein Contagium vivum fluidum als Ursache der Fleckenkrankheit der Tabaksblätter" (PDF). Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam (in German). 65: 1–22. Translated into English in Johnson, J., Ed. (1942) Phytopathological classics. (St. Paul, Minnesota: American Phytopathological Society) No. 7, pp. 33–52 (St. Paul, Minnesota)
9. ^ Iwanowski, D. (1892). "Über die Mosaikkrankheit der Tabakspflanze". Bulletin Scientifique Publié Par l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg. Nouvelle Série III (in German and Russian). 35. St. Petersburg: 67–70. Translated into English in Johnson, J., Ed. (1942) Phytopathological classics (St. Paul, Minnesota: American Phytopathological Society) No. 7, pp. 27–-30.
10. ^ Creager, Angela N. H. (2002). The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 26\. ISBN 9780226120256. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
11. ^ Beijerinck, M.W, 1901, Über oligonitrophile Mikroben, Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde, Infektionskrankheiten und Hygiene, Abteilung II, Vol 7, pp. 561–582
12. ^ Jean, Euzeby. "Genus Desulfovibrio". List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
13. ^ de Wit R, Bouvier T. (2006). "Everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects; what did Baas Becking and Beijerinck really say?". Environmental Microbiology. 8 (4): 755–758. doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2006.01017.x. PMID 16584487.
14. ^ Bass-Becking, Lourens G.M. (1934). "Geobiologie of inleiding tot de milieukunde". The Hague: W.P. Van Stockum & Zoon. `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help)
15. ^ Geertje Dekkers (24 March 2020). "De man die het virus bedacht" (in Dutch).
16. ^ Arahal, David R. (June 2016). "Beijerinckia". Bergey's Manual of Systematics of Archaea and Bacteria: 1–18. doi:10.1002/9781118960608.gbm00795.pub2. ISBN 9781118960608. Archived from the original on 11 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2020.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Martinus Willem Beijerinck.

* Works by or about Martinus Beijerinck at the Internet Archive
* Beijerinck and the Delft School of Microbiology
* Viruses and the Prokaryotic World

* v
* t
* e

Microbiology: Virus

* History
* Introduction
* Social history of viruses
* Virology

Components|

* Capsid
* Viral envelope
* Viral protein

Viral life cycle|

* Viral entry
* Viral replication
* Viral shedding
* Viroplasm
* Virus latency
* Lytic cycle
* Lysogenic cycle

Genetics|

* Antigenic drift
* Antigenic shift
* Phenotype mixing
* Reassortment
* Viral evolution

By host|

* Animal virus
* Bacteriophage
* Virophage
* Human virome
* Mycovirus
* Plant virus

Other|

* Antiviral drug
* Giant virus
* Helper virus
* Viral vector
* Helper dependent virus
* Laboratory diagnosis of viral infections
* Marine viruses
* Neurotropic virus
* Oncovirus
* Satellites
* Viral disease
* Viral load
* Virus-like particle
* Virus classification
* Virus quantification
* Virome
* Virosphere

* Portal
* Category
* Commons
* WikiProject

* v
* t
* e

Microorganisms

Groups|

* Archaea
* Bacteria
* Cyanobacteria
* Fungi
* Nanobacterium
* Prokaryote
* Protist
* Protozoa
* Virus

Microbiology|

* Microbial biogeography
* Microbial genetics
* Microbial intelligence
* Microbial metabolism
* Microbial phylogenetics
* Microbial population biology
* Mycology
* Virology

Motion|

* Bacterial motility
* run-and-tumble
* twitching
* gliding
* Protist locomotion
* amoeboids
* Bacteria collective motion

Ecology|

* Biofilm
* Biological pump
* Kill the Winner hypothesis
* Microbial consortium
* Microbial cooperation
* Microbial biodegradation
* Microbial ecology
* Microbial cyst
* Microbial food web
* microbial loop
* viral shunt
* Microbial mat
* Microbial synergy
* Microbiome
* microbiota
* holobiont
* Quorum sensing
* Host microbe interactions in Caenorhabditis elegans

Plants|

* Plant microbiome
* Root microbiome
* Seagrass microbiome
* Soil microbiology
* Spermosphere

Marine|

* Marine microorganisms
* Marine viruses
* Marine prokaryotes
* Marine protists
* Microalgae
* Antarctic microorganism
* Coral microbiome
* Hydrothermal vent microbial communities
* Marine microbial symbiosis
* Microbial oxidation of sulfur
* Phycosphere
* Picoeukaryote
* International Census of Marine Microbes

Human related|

* Microbes in human culture
* Microbiomes of the built environment
* Food microbiology
* Microbial oil
* Microbial symbiosis and immunity
* Nylon-eating
* Human microbiome
* asthma
* dysbiosis
* fecal
* gut
* lung
* mouth
* skin
* vagina
* in pregnancy
* placenta
* uterus
* Human Microbiome Project
* Protein production
* Synthetic microbial consortia

Techniques|

* Dark-field microscopy
* DNA sequencing
* Impedance microbiology
* Microbial cytology
* Microbial DNA barcoding
* Microbiological culture
* Staining

Other|

* Bioremediation
* Deep biosphere
* Microbial dark matter
* Microswimmer
* biohybrid
* Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes
* Microbially induced sedimentary structure
* Omics
* Physical factors affecting microbial life
* Siderophore

* Category

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Netherlands
* Israel

Academics|

* CiNii
* International Plant Names Index

People|

* Netherlands
* Deutsche Biographie

Other|

* IdRef
* SNAC

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template