Sergei Winogradsky
Encyclopedia
Sergei Nikolaievich Winogradsky (or Vinogradskyi; ) (September 14, 1856- February 25, 1953) was a Ukrainian
-Russian microbiologist
, ecologist and soil scientist
who pioneered the cycle of life
concept. He discovered the first known form of lithotrophy during his research with Beggiatoa
in 1887. He reported in that Beggiatoa oxidized hydrogen sulfide
(H2S) as an energy source and formed intracellular sulfur
droplets. This research provided the first example of lithotrophy, but not autotrophy
. His research on nitrifying bacteria
would report the first known form of chemoautotrophy
, showing how a lithotroph fixes carbon dioxide
(CO2) to make organic compound
s.
Winogradsky was born in Kiev
, in what was then the Russian Empire
, and entered the Imperial Conservatoire of Music in St Petersburg
in 1875 to study piano. However, after two years of music training, he entered the University of Saint Petersburg in 1877 to study chemistry under Nikolai Menshchutkin
and botany under Andrei Sergeevich Famintzin. He took a diploma in 1881 and stayed at the University of St Petersburg to receive a degree of master of science in botany in 1884. In 1885, he began work at the University of Strasbourg
under the renowned botanist Anton de Bary
; Winogradsky became renowned for his work on sulfur bacteria. In 1888, he relocated to Zurich
, where he began investigation into the process of nitrification, identifying the genera Nitrosomonas
and Nitrosococcus, which oxidizes ammonium
to nitrite
, and Nitrobacter
, which oxidizes nitrite to nitrate
. He returned to St. Petersburg for the period 1891-1905 and there was chief of the division of general microbiology of the Institute of Experimental Medicine; during this period, he identified the obligate anaerobe Clostridium pasteurianum
, which is capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen. In 1901, he was elected honorary member of the Moscow Society of Natural Science and, in 1902, corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences. He retired from active scientific work in 1905, dividing his time between his private estate and Switzerland. In 1922, he accepted an invitation to head the division of agricultural bacteriology at the Pasteur Institute
at an experimental station at Brie-Comte-Robert
, France, about 30 km from Paris. In this period, he worked on a number of topics, among them iron bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, nitrogen fixation by Azotobacter
, cellulose
-decomposing bacteria, and culture methods for soil microorganisms. Winogradsky retired from active life in 1940 and died in Brie-Comte-Robert.
Winogradsky is best known for discovering chemoautotrophy, which soon became popularly known as chemosynthesis, the process by which organisms derive energy from a number of different inorganic compound
s and obtain carbon
in the form of carbon dioxide
. Previously, it was believed that autotrophs obtained their energy solely from light
, not from reactions of inorganic compounds. With the discovery of organisms that oxidized inorganic compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonium as energy sources, autotrophs could be divided into two groups: photoautotrophs
and chemoautotrophs. Winogradsky was one of the first researchers to attempt to understand microorganisms outside of the medical context, making him among the first students of microbial ecology
and environmental microbiology
. The Winogradsky column
remains an important display of chemoautotrophy and microbial ecology, demonstrated in microbiology lectures around the world.
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
-Russian microbiologist
Microbiologist
A microbiologist is a scientist who works in the field of microbiology. Microbiologists study organisms called microbes. Microbes can take the form of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protists...
, ecologist and soil scientist
Soil science
Soil science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to the use and management of soils.Sometimes terms which...
who pioneered the cycle of life
Biogeochemical cycle
In ecology and Earth science, a biogeochemical cycle or substance turnover or cycling of substances is a pathway by which a chemical element or molecule moves through both biotic and abiotic compartments of Earth. A cycle is a series of change which comes back to the starting point and which can...
concept. He discovered the first known form of lithotrophy during his research with Beggiatoa
Beggiatoa
Beggiatoa is a genus of bacteria in the order Thiotrichales. They are named after the Italian medic and botanist F.S. Beggiato. The organisms live in sulfur-rich environments...
in 1887. He reported in that Beggiatoa oxidized hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless, very poisonous, flammable gas with the characteristic foul odor of expired eggs perceptible at concentrations as low as 0.00047 parts per million...
(H2S) as an energy source and formed intracellular sulfur
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
droplets. This research provided the first example of lithotrophy, but not autotrophy
Autotrophy
Autotrophy is the ability to be self-sustained by producing food from inorganic compounds. Some bacteria and some archaea have this ability. Inorganic compounds are oxidized directly without sunlight to yield energy. This metabolic mode also requires energy for CO2 reduction, like photosynthesis,...
. His research on nitrifying bacteria
Nitrifying bacteria
Nitrifying bacteria are chemoautotrophic or chemolithotrophs depending on the genera bacteria that grow by consuming inorganic nitrogen compounds...
would report the first known form of chemoautotrophy
Chemotroph
Chemotrophs are organisms that obtain energy by the oxidation of electron donors in their environments. These molecules can be organic or inorganic . The chemotroph designation is in contrast to phototrophs, which utilize solar energy...
, showing how a lithotroph fixes carbon dioxide
Carbon fixation
In biology, carbon fixation is the reduction of carbon dioxide to organic compounds by living organisms. The obvious example is photosynthesis. Carbon fixation requires both a source of energy such as sunlight, and an electron donor such as water. All life depends on fixed carbon. Organisms that...
(CO2) to make organic compound
Organic compound
An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...
s.
Winogradsky was born in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, in what was then the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, and entered the Imperial Conservatoire of Music in St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...
in 1875 to study piano. However, after two years of music training, he entered the University of Saint Petersburg in 1877 to study chemistry under Nikolai Menshchutkin
Menshutkin reaction
The Menshutkin reaction in organic chemistry converts a tertiary amine to a quaternary ammonium salt by reaction with an alkyl halide:The reaction has been named after its discoverer, the Russian chemist Nikolai Menshutkin, who described the procedure in 1890...
and botany under Andrei Sergeevich Famintzin. He took a diploma in 1881 and stayed at the University of St Petersburg to receive a degree of master of science in botany in 1884. In 1885, he began work at the University of Strasbourg
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
under the renowned botanist Anton de Bary
Anton de Bary
Heinrich Anton de Bary was a German surgeon, botanist, microbiologist, and mycologist ....
; Winogradsky became renowned for his work on sulfur bacteria. In 1888, he relocated to Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, where he began investigation into the process of nitrification, identifying the genera Nitrosomonas
Nitrosomonas
Nitrosomonas is a genus comprising rod shaped chemoautotrophic bacteria.This rare bacteria oxidizes ammonia into nitrite as a metabolic process. Nitrosomonas are useful in treatment of industrial and sewage waste and in the process of bioremediation. They are important in the nitrogen cycle by...
and Nitrosococcus, which oxidizes ammonium
Ammonium
The ammonium cation is a positively charged polyatomic cation with the chemical formula NH. It is formed by the protonation of ammonia...
to nitrite
Nitrite
The nitrite ion has the chemical formula NO2−. The anion is symmetric with equal N-O bond lengths and a O-N-O bond angle of ca. 120°. On protonation the unstable weak acid nitrous acid is produced. Nitrite can be oxidised or reduced, with product somewhat dependent on the oxidizing/reducing agent...
, and Nitrobacter
Nitrobacter
Nitrobacter is genus of mostly rod-shaped, gram-negative, and chemoautotrophic bacteria.Nitrobacter plays an important role in the nitrogen cycle by oxidizing nitrite into nitrate in soil...
, which oxidizes nitrite to nitrate
Nitrate
The nitrate ion is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. It is the conjugate base of nitric acid, consisting of one central nitrogen atom surrounded by three identically-bonded oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement. The nitrate ion carries a...
. He returned to St. Petersburg for the period 1891-1905 and there was chief of the division of general microbiology of the Institute of Experimental Medicine; during this period, he identified the obligate anaerobe Clostridium pasteurianum
Clostridium
Clostridium is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria, belonging to the Firmicutes. They are obligate anaerobes capable of producing endospores. Individual cells are rod-shaped, which gives them their name, from the Greek kloster or spindle...
, which is capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen. In 1901, he was elected honorary member of the Moscow Society of Natural Science and, in 1902, corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences. He retired from active scientific work in 1905, dividing his time between his private estate and Switzerland. In 1922, he accepted an invitation to head the division of agricultural bacteriology at the Pasteur Institute
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...
at an experimental station at Brie-Comte-Robert
Brie-Comte-Robert
Brie-Comte-Robert is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.Brie-Comte-Robert is on the edge of the plain of Brie and was formerly the capital of the Brie française....
, France, about 30 km from Paris. In this period, he worked on a number of topics, among them iron bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, nitrogen fixation by Azotobacter
Azotobacter
Azotobacter is a genus of usually motile, oval or spherical bacteria that form thick-walled cysts and may produce large quantities of capsular slime. They are aerobic, free-living soil microbes which play an important role in the nitrogen cycle in nature, binding atmospheric nitrogen, which is...
, cellulose
Cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand β linked D-glucose units....
-decomposing bacteria, and culture methods for soil microorganisms. Winogradsky retired from active life in 1940 and died in Brie-Comte-Robert.
Inorganic compound
Inorganic compounds have traditionally been considered to be of inanimate, non-biological origin. In contrast, organic compounds have an explicit biological origin. However, over the past century, the classification of inorganic vs organic compounds has become less important to scientists,...
s and obtain carbon
Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
in the form of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
. Previously, it was believed that autotrophs obtained their energy solely from light
Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz...
, not from reactions of inorganic compounds. With the discovery of organisms that oxidized inorganic compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonium as energy sources, autotrophs could be divided into two groups: photoautotrophs
Phototroph
Phototrophs are the organisms that carry out photosynthesis to acquire energy. They use the energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic material to be utilized in cellular functions such as biosynthesis and respiration.Most phototrophs are autotrophs, also known as...
and chemoautotrophs. Winogradsky was one of the first researchers to attempt to understand microorganisms outside of the medical context, making him among the first students of microbial ecology
Microbial ecology
Microbial ecology is the ecology of microorganisms: their relationship with one another and with their environment. It concerns the three major domains of life — Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria — as well as viruses....
and environmental microbiology
Environmental microbiology
Environmental microbiology is the study of the composition and physiology of microbial communities in the environment. The environment in this case means the soil, water, air and sediments covering the planet and can also include the animals and plants that inhabit these areas...
. The Winogradsky column
Winogradsky column
The Winogradsky column is a simple device for culturing a large diversity of microorganisms. Invented by Sergei Winogradsky, the device is a column of pond mud and water mixed with a carbon source such as newspaper blackened marshmallows or egg-shells and a sulfur source such as gypsum or...
remains an important display of chemoautotrophy and microbial ecology, demonstrated in microbiology lectures around the world.
Further reading
- Waksman, S.A.Selman WaksmanSelman Abraham Waksman was an American biochemist and microbiologist whose research into organic substances—largely into organisms that live in soil—and their decomposition promoted the discovery of Streptomycin, and several other antibiotics...
1946. "Sergei Nikolaevitch Winogradsky: The study of a great bacteriologist" Soil Science 62:197-226. - Ackert, L. 2006. "The Role of Microbes in Agriculture: Sergei Vinogradskii’s Discovery and Investigation of Chemosynthesis, 1880-1910” Journal of the History of Biology 39:373-406.
- Ackert, L. 2006. "The 'Cycle of Life' in Ecology: Sergei Vinogradskii's Soil Microbiology, 1885-1940" Journal of the History of Biology 40:109-145.
- Ackert, L. 2004. From the Thermodynamics of Life to Ecological Microbiology: Sergei Vinogradskii and the Cycle of Life, 1850-1950 (Ph.D. Dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University).