Emil Heitz (born 19 October 1892 in Strasbourg, then part of the German Empire - died 8 July 1965 in

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

, Switzerland) was a German-Swiss botanist and

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 ...

. In 1928, Heitz detected differences along chromosomes that correlated with linear arrangement of genes, suggesting the terms

euchromatin Euchromatin (also called "open chromatin") is a lightly packed form of chromatin (DNA, RNA, and protein) that is enriched in genes, and is often (but not always) under active Transcription (genetics), transcription. Euchromatin stands in contrast ...

and

heterochromatin Heterochromatin is a tightly packed form of DNA or '' condensed DNA'', which comes in multiple varieties. These varieties lie on a continue between the two extremes of constitutive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin. Both play a rol ...

for differences detectable by suitable chromosomal stains. His subsequent studies developed what he called cytological genetics, laying the ground for what is now termed

cytogenetics Cytogenetics is essentially a branch of genetics, but is also a part of cell biology/cytology (a subdivision of human anatomy), that is concerned with how the chromosomes relate to cell behaviour, particularly to their behaviour during mitosis ...

. In November 1933 Heitz was a signatory of the '' Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State''. In 1955, Heitz was the first winner of the

Schleiden Medal The Schleiden Medal is an award given by the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the National Academy of Germany, to honour outstanding achievements in the field of cellular biology. The award is named after botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden. Recipie ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heitz, Emil 1892 births 1965 deaths 20th-century German botanists Schleiden Medal recipients