Eva Sansome, née Richardson (1906–2001) was a British mycologist.

Life

Eva Richardson was born on 9 September 1906, possibly in New Zealand. She gained a DSc. from

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, and in 1928 was appointed a fellow of the

Linnean Society 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 collec ...

. In 1929 she married fellow botanist F. W. Sansome. Sansome lectured in horticulture at the University of Manchester and the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in the country. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the British colony of the Gold Coast ...

. During the war she collaborated with

Alexander Hollaender Alexander Hollaender (9 December 1898 – 6 December 1986) was one of the world's leading researchers in radiation biology and in genetic mutations. In 1983 he was given the Enrico Fermi Award by the United States Department of Energy for his cont ...

Milislav Demerec Milislav Demerec (January 11, 1895 – April 12, 1966) was a Croatian- American geneticist, and the director of the Department of Genetics, Carnegie Institution of Washington IW now Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) from 1941 to 1960, r ...

and a young Esther M. Zimmer at the United States Public Health Service (

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

), publishing in the very early field of x-ray- and UV-induced

mutations In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mitosi ...

. In the late 1950s she was registered at

University College Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public university located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Initially founded as the University College Ibadan in 1948, it maintained its affiliation with the University of London. In 1962, it became an independe ...

, though on placement to Long Island Biological Laboratories. She researched

meiosis Meiosis () is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, the sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately result in four cells, each with only one c ...

in the

oogonium An oogonium (: oogonia) is a small diploid cell which, upon maturation, forms a primordial follicle in a female fetus or the female (haploid or diploid) gametangium of certain thallophytes. In the mammalian fetus Oogonia are formed in large ...

. She studied the

antheridium An antheridium is a haploid structure or organ producing and containing male gametes (called ''antherozoids'' or sperm). The plural form is antheridia, and a structure containing one or more antheridia is called an androecium. The androecium is al ...

of ''

Pythium debaryanum ''Pythium debaryanum'' is a species of water mould in the family Pythiaceae. It is known as a plant pathogen on many kinds of wild and cultivated plants, including peanut, beet, eucalyptus, tobacco, and pine trees. The plants develop damping ...

'', showing in a 1963 paper that the

mycelium Mycelium (: mycelia) is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Its normal form is that of branched, slender, entangled, anastomosing, hyaline threads. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are fo ...

of ''Pythium debaryanum'' was

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, ...

, rather than (as previously believed)

haploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell (biology), cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for Autosome, autosomal and Pseudoautosomal region, pseudoautosomal genes. Here ''sets of chromosomes'' refers to the num ...

. Subsequent work established that both oospores and mycelium are diploid in several

Peronosporales The Peronosporales are an order of water moulds (class Oomycetes) which can be pathogenic In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce di ...

genera. A Reader in the Department of Botany at

Ahmadu Bello University The Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) is a public research university located in Zaria, Nigeria, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. It was opened in 1962 as the University of Northern Nigeria. The university has four colleges, three schools, 18 faculties, ...

in the mid-1960s, she and her husband supported eliminating the

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a t ...

from

Northern Nigeria Northern Nigeria (or Arewa, Arewancin Nijeriya) was an autonomous division within Nigeria, distinctly different from the southern part of the country, with independent customs, foreign relations and security structures. In 1962, it acquired t ...

at the time of the

1966 anti-Igbo pogrom A series of massacres were committed against Igbo people and other people of southern Nigerian origin living in northern Nigeria starting in May 1966 and reaching a peak after 29 September 1966. Between 8,000 and 30,000 Igbos and easterners have ...

. She was awarded an

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in the

1968 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1968 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced in supplements to the ''Lon ...

. She collaborated with Clive Brasier. After her husband's death in 1981, Sansome moved to live with her son's family in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

. After a series of strokes, she died on 11 February 2001.

Works

* ''Segmental interchange in Pisum sativum''. Newcastle upon Tyne: University of Durham, 1941. * 'Maintenance of heterozygosity in a homothallic species of the Neurospora tetrasperma type', ''Nature'' 157 (1946):484.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sansome, Eva 1906 births 2001 deaths British mycologists Women mycologists Alumni of the University of Manchester Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Members of the Order of the British Empire