Edith Rebecca Saunders FLS (14 October 1865 – 6 June 1945) was a British

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processes ...

and plant anatomist. Described by

J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolo ...

as the "Mother of British Plant Genetics", she played an active role in the re-discovery of Mendel's laws of heredity, the understanding of trait inheritance in plants, and was the first collaborator of the geneticist

William Bateson William Bateson (8 August 1861 – 8 February 1926) was an English biologist who was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity, and the chief populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel following their rediscove ...

. She also developed extensive work on flower anatomy, particularly focusing on the gynoecia, the female reproductive organs of flowers.

Biography

Saunders was born on 14 October 1865 in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, England. She was educated first at Handsworth Ladies' College and in 1884 she entered the female-only

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millic ...

. There, she attended both Part I (in 1887) and II (in 1888) of the

Natural Sciences Tripos The Natural Sciences Tripos (NST) is the framework within which most of the science at the University of Cambridge is taught. The tripos includes a wide range of Natural Sciences from physics, astronomy, and geoscience, to chemistry and biology, ...

She continued to post-graduate research, and served as a demonstrator at the Balfour Biological Laboratory for Women between 1888 and 1890 (where students from Newnham and Girton colleges received preparation for the Natural Sciences Tripos). She was the last director of that Laboratory between 1890 and 1914. She was also director of studies at Girton College (1904–1914) and Newnham College (1918–1925). She was appointed a fellow of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

from which she received the Banksian Medal in 1906. In 1905 she was one of the first women elected a Fellow of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature coll ...

, later serving on its council (1910 - 1915) and as vice-president during 1912- 1913. In 1920 she was the president of the botanical section of the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chi ...

. She also served as president of the Genetics Society, between 1936 and 1938. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

she served as a volunteer helping the Allied forces. She died soon after returning to Britain, in 1945, after suffering injuries in a bicycle accident.

Research

Saunders' earlier research focused on genetics. Many of her genetic experiments led to her and

defining important terms like "allelomorphs" (nowadays referred to as

allele An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution. ::"The chrom ...

s),

heterozygote Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. M ...

and

homozygote Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mo ...

. Furthermore, together with Bateson and

Reginald Punnett Reginald Crundall Punnett FRS (; 20 June 1875 – 3 January 1967) was a British geneticist who co-founded, with William Bateson, the ''Journal of Genetics'' in 1910. Punnett is probably best remembered today as the creator of the Punnett ...

she co-discovered

genetic linkage Genetic linkage is the tendency of DNA sequences that are close together on a chromosome to be inherited together during the meiosis phase of sexual reproduction. Two genetic markers that are physically near to each other are unlikely to be sep ...

.Discovery and Types of Genetic Linkage
from Scitable She also did extensive work in plant anatomy, particularly concerning gynoecia, having published several articles on the subject (noteworthy is her series of articles on "Illustrations of Carpel Polymorphism" published in the journal

New Phytologist ''New Phytologist'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published on behalf of the New Phytologist Foundation by Wiley-Blackwell. It was founded in 1902 by botanist Arthur Tansley, who served as editor until 1931. Topics covered ''New Phytolo ...

between 1928 and 1931).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saunders, Edith Rebecca 1865 births 1945 deaths British geneticists History of genetics People from Brighton and Hove Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Women geneticists

Biography

Research

See also

References