Mitosis and amitosis in Biological Bulletin XXXIII (6):396-437, December 1917

Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1917. First edition.

LANDMARK EARLY STUDY IN DEFENSE OF THE CHROMOSOME THEORY--SHOWING THAT APPARENT AMITOSIS IS "MERELY MODIFIED MITOSIS"

10 inches tall offprint, gray printed wraps, green cloth tape spine, handstamp inscription top cover, "With the Compliments of E G Conklin", and handstamp below of F. T. Baldwin Jr. pp396-437, including 10 plates with facing descriptive text. Wear to cover edges, light browning to pages that are unmarked. Very good in polypropylene envelope.

Amitosis was first described in 1880 by Walther Flemming, who also described mitosis and other forms of cell division. Initially it was common for biologists to think of cells having the ability to divide both mitotically and amitotically. In agreement with Conklin, it is now recognized that amitosis is the division of cells in the interphase state, typically achieved by a simple constriction into two sometimes unequal halves without any regular segregation of genetic material. This process results in the random distribution of parental chromosomes in the daughter cells, in contrast to mitosis, which involves the precise distribution of chromosomes. Amitosis does not involve the maximal condensation of chromatin into chromosomes.

EDWIN GRANT CONKLIN (1863-1952) carried out meticulous studies of cell lineage in marine organisms, including the slipper snail Crepidula (the organism studied in the paper offered here). Much of that work took place at the Marine Biological Laboratory, where Conklin played important leadership roles and gained life-long friendships and collaborations. He was educated at Ohio Wesleyan University and Johns Hopkins University. He was professor of biology at Ohio Wesleyan (1891–94) and professor of zoology at Northwestern University (1894–96), the University of Pennsylvania (1896-1908), and Princeton University (1908-1935). He became coeditor of the Journal of Morphology, The Biological Bulletin, and the Journal of Experimental Zoology. He was president of the American Society of Naturalists in 1912 and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1936. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914. He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science and the Public, from 1937-1952. In 1943 Conklin was awarded the John J. Carty Award from the National Academy of Sciences.