Konstantin Mereschkowski

Konstantin Mereschkowski
Mereschkowski c. 1885
Born(1855-08-04)4 August 1855
Died9 January 1921(1921-01-09) (aged 65)
CitizenshipRussian
Alma materUniversity of Saint Petersburg
Known forTheory of symbiogenesis
SpouseOlga Petrovna Sultanova
Scientific career
FieldsLichens
Diatoms
Hydrozoa
InstitutionsUniversity of Kazan
Author abbrev. (botany)Mereschk.

Konstantin Sergeevich Mereschkowski[a] (Russian: Константи́н Серге́евич Мережко́вский, IPA: [mʲɪrʲɪˈʂkofskʲɪj]; 4 August 1855 [O.S. 23 July] – 9 January 1921) was a Russian biologist and botanist, active mainly around Kazan, whose research on lichens led him to propose the theory of symbiogenesis – that larger, more complex cells (of eukaryotes) evolved from the symbiotic relationship between less complex ones. He presented this theory in 1910, in his work, The Theory of Two Plasms as the Basis of Symbiogenesis, a New Study of the Origins of Organisms, although the fundamentals of the idea had already appeared in his earlier 1905 work, The nature and origins of chromatophores in the plant kingdom.
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