Alfred Henry SturtevantBorn 21 Nov 1891; died 5 Apr 1970 at age 78. American geneticist who developed (1913) a technique for mapping the location of specific genes of the chromosomes in the fruit fly Drosophila. Sturtevant's method for “chromosome mapping”, relies on the analysis of groups of linked genes. His paper, published in 1913, described the location of six sex-linked genes as deduced by the way in which they associate with each other: it is one of the classic papers in genetics. Sturtevant later discovered the so-called 'position effect', in which the expression of a gene depends on its position in relation to other genes. He also demonstrated that crossing over between chromosomes is prevented in regions where a part of the chromosome material is inserted the wrong way round. |
