Rossiter H. Crozier

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Rossiter Henry Crozier (born 1943 in India , † November 12, 2009 in Townsville , Australia , also known as Ross Crozier ) was an Australian entomologist and cytogeneticist . An obituary in Science said that Crozier "pioneered the use of genetic markers to study social insects and made crucial contributions to the theory of social evolution ."

Life

Ross Crozier was born to Australian parents in India during World War II . At age nine, he was in his native Australia in a boarding school , the Geelong Grammar School , enrolled in school. He studied zoology at Melbourne University , where he also met his future wife and close scientific colleague, Yuen Ching Kok. Both went to the United States , where Crozier obtained his doctorate degree (Ph.D.) from Cornell University in 1969 in the group of geneticist William Lacy Brown. He then received a position as an assistant professor in 1970 and from 1969 as a full professor at the University of Georgia , which he gave up in 1975 in favor of a professorship at the University of New South Wales in Australia. In 1990 he moved to La Trobe University in Melbourne as Professor of Genetics , and from 2000 he was Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at James Cook University in the Australian state of Queensland .

He died at the age of 66 as a result of a heart attack that he suffered in his laboratory. He left behind his wife Ching, who also worked as a scientist at James Cook University, and two sons of the couple.

Research topics

During his stay at Cornell University, Crozier had developed and published a method in 1968 to air-dry the chromosomes of insects and then to be able to count them and describe their appearance. This enabled him to initially requires considerable time, the number of chromosomes for dozens of ants - species accurately represent the first time. He was also able to help clarify controversial delimitations (species or subspecies ) with the help of genetic markers. In cooperation with the geneticist Hirotami T. Imai, who at the end of the 1960s had developed a method for analyzing insect chromosomes based on crushed preparations , they combined their two methods in 1975 to create an optimized analysis process. The new method made it possible for them to sit in the field next to an ant's nest and prepare chromosomes within an hour, and even display their C-bands (the centromere region ) without special treatment . At the end of 1975 she had already examined the chromosomes of 105 Australian ant species and by 1977 - in collaboration with the Australian ecologist Robert W. Taylor - had largely clarified the relationships between these species. The empirical studies by Crozier and Imai were supplemented by theoretical considerations on chromosome evolution at the end of the 1970s , whereby at that time the main question was whether the number of chromosomes common in today's species was the result of the fusion of smaller units or the division of larger units .

Crozier also contributed to the understanding of why female social insects mate with multiple males. This behavior means that the offspring in their colony are less closely related to one another than if they were descended from a single male, which from a sociobiological point of view means that their social behavior (especially eusocial behavior) only develops more difficultly in the course of the tribal history could. However, the colonies of these insects are usually larger than those whose queen only mates with a male. In 1985, together with Robert E. Page, he named possible constellations in the social systems of the species, which can be used to check which genetic basis is advantageous for polyandry .

In 1993, together with his wife, he published the nucleotide sequence of the mitochondria of the honey bee ( Apis mellifera ), after the mitochondria genome of Drosophila , it was the second of an insect.

Honors

Fonts (selection)

  • An Acetic Acid Dissociation, Air-Drying Technique for Insect Chromosomes, With Aceto-Lactic Orcein Staining. In: Stain Technology. Volume 43, No. 3, 1968, pp. 171-173, doi: 10.3109 / 10520296809115063 .
  • Interpopulation karyotype differences in Australian Iridomyrmex of the "detectus" group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Dolichoderinae). In: Journal of the Austalian Entomolgical Society. Volume 7, 1968. pp. 25-27, full text (PDF) .
  • Karyotypes of twenty-one ant species (Hymenoptera; Formicidae), with reviews of the known ant karyotypes. In: Canadian Journal of Genetics and Cytology. Vol. 12, No. 1, 1970, pp. 109-128, doi: 10.1139 / g70-018 .
  • Coefficients of Relationship and the Identity of Genes by Descent in the Hymenoptera. In: American Naturalist. Volume 104, No. 936, 1970, pp. 216-217, doi: 10.1086 / 282654 .
  • with Hirotami T. Imai and Robert W. Taylor: Karyotype evolution in Australian ants. In: Chromosoma. Volume 59, 1977, pp. 341-393, doi: 10.1007 / BF00327974 .
  • with Hirotami T. Imai: Quantitative Analysis of Directionality in Mammalian Karyotype Evolution. In: American Naturalist. Volume 116, No. 4, 1980, pp. 537-569, doi: 10.1086 / 283646 .
  • with Robert E. Page: On being the right size: male contributions and multiple mating in social Hymenoptera. In: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Volume 18, 1985, pp. 105-115, doi: 10.1007 / BF00299039 .
  • with Michael WJ Crosland: Myrmecia pilosula, an Ant with Only One Pair of Chromosomes. In: Science. Volume 231, No. 4743, 1986, p. 1278, doi: 10.1126 / science.231.4743.1278 .
  • with Yuen Ching Crozier: The Mitochondrial Genome of the Honeybee Apis Mellifera: Complete Sequence and Genome Organization. In: Genetics. Volume 133, No. 1, 1993, pp. 97-117, full text (PDF) .
  • with Hirotami T. Imai and Robert. W. Taylor: Experimental bases for the minimum interaction theory. I. Chromosome evolution in ants of the Myrmecia pilosula species complex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmeciinae). In: Japanese Journal of Genetics. Volume 69, No. 2, 1994, pp. 137-182, doi: 10.1266 / jjg.69.137 .
  • with Pekka Pamilo: Evolution of social insect colonies: sex allocation and kin selection. Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0-19-854943-7 .
  • Charting uncertainty about ant origins. In: PNAS . Volume 103, No. 48, 2006, pp. 18029-18030, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.0608880103 .
  • Advanced eusociality, kin selection and male haploidy. In: Australian Journal of Entomology. Volume 47, No. 1, 2008, pp. 2-8, doi: 10.1111 / j.1440-6055.2007.00621.x .

literature

  • Michael AD Goodisman: Ross H. Crozier (1943-2009). In: Entomologica Americana. Volume 116, No. 1, 2010, pp. 92-94, doi: 10.1664 / 10-SN-002.1 .
  • Hirotami T. Imai: Aproductive friendship - my work in ant cytogenetics with Ross H. Crozier. In: Myrmecological News. Volume 15, 2011, pp. 1–5, full text .
  • Pekka Pamilo: Contributions by Ross Crozier on genetics and phylogeny of ants and other organisms. In: Myrmecological News. Volume 15, 2011, pp. V – XXII, full text

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jacobus J. Boomsma and Pekka Pamilo: Rossiter H. Crozier (1943–2009). In: Science . Volume 327, No. 5961, 2010, p. 45, doi: 10.1126 / science.1185061 .
  2. ^ Graham J. Thompson: Professor Rossiter H. Crozier 1943–2009. In: evolution. Volume 64, No. 4, 2010, pp. 869-870, doi: 10.1111 / j.1558-5646.2009.00949.x .
  3. ↑ Hirotami T. Imai: Aproductive friendship - my work in ant cytogenetics with Ross H. Crozier. In: Myrmecological News. Volume 15, 2011, pp. 1–5, full text .
  4. ↑ Michael AD Goodisman: Ross H. Crozier (1943-2009). In: Entomologica Americana. Volume 116, No. 1, 2010, p. 92, doi: 10.1664 / 10-SN-002.1 .
  5. ↑ Leading scientist dies. ( Memento of March 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Communication from James Cook University of November 13, 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Crozier, Rossiter H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crozier, Rossiter Henry; Crozier, Ross
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian entomologist and cytogeneticist
DATE OF BIRTH 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH India
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 2009
Place of death Townsville , Australia