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Mary Belle Allen

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Mary Belle Allen
Mary Belle Allen, Kaiser Permanente, 1959
BornNovember 11, 1922[2]
Morristown, New Jersey
Died1973(1973-00-00) (aged 50–51)
Fairbanks, Alaska[3]
Alma materUniversity of California, Columbia University
FatherFrederick Madison Allen
AwardsDarbaker Prize, 1962[1]
Scientific career
FieldsBotany, chemistry, biochemical microbiology
InstitutionsHopkins Marine Station, University of California, Berkeley, Kaiser Permanente, University of Alaska
Author abbrev. (botany)M.B.Allen

Mary Belle Allen (November 11, 1922, Morristown, New Jersey –1973, Fairbanks, Alaska) was an American botanist, chemist, mycologist, algologist, and plant pathologist, and a pioneer of biochemical microbiology. With Daniel I. Arnon and F. Robert Whatley, she did breakthrough research discovering and demonstrating the role of chloroplasts in photosynthesis.[4][5] In 1962 she received the Darbaker Prize from the Botanical Society of America for her work on microbial algae.[1] In 1967 she was nominated jointly (but unsuccessfully) with Arnon and Whatley for a Nobel Prize.[6]

The abbreviation M.B.Allen is used to indicate Mary Belle Allen as the author of the description and scientific classification of genera and species. (Consult IPNI).[7][8]

Career

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Mary Belle Allen was a daughter of Frederick Madison Allen and Belle W. Allen. She had a sister, Dorothy Llewellyn Allen (later Flynn).[9]

Bachelor's degree

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Allen earned her bachelor's degree with honors in 1941 from the college of chemistry at the University of California in Berkeley, California.[2][10][11] She was 19.[4]

Ph.D. degree

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Allen was accepted as a Ph.D. student of the University of California by Sam Ruben in Berkeley.[12][13][14] Allen is listed as an assistant at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at the University of California in Berkeley for 1941-42[2][15] and as a chemist for the Manhattan District for 1942-44.[2] While working with Ruben, she used radioactive tracers to study photosynthesis and chlorophyll.[4][16]

Following Sam Ruben's death in 1943, Allen transferred to Columbia University.[12] Allen received a DuPont fellowship for 1945-1946[2] and completed her Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Columbia University in 1946,[2][12] with a thesis on Phosphorus in Starch.[17]

Postdoctoral work

[edit]

For 1946-1947, Allen received a National Research Council fellowship in chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis.[2][18][19][20][12] She also spent a year at the Marine Biological Laboratory at the University of Chicago as a visiting fellow with James Franck and Hans Gaffron, possibly around 1951.[21]

In 1947, she became a research associate at Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York.[18][2][12] The first part of this appointment occurred at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, California.[18] where "Dr. Mary Belle Allen" was listed as a "visiting Investigator" from Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York.[22] Initial funding for the project came from biochemist Harry Sobotka at Mt. Sinai Hospital, who had received a grant from the U.S. Public Health Service.[23] She was able to continue the work through Stanford with funding from the Office of Naval Research.[23]

At Hopkins Marine Station Allen worked with C. B. van Niel on the physiology and biochemistry of thermophiles, bacteria that can survive at high temperatures.[22][23] In 1952, she reported that she had isolated an "unidentified unicellular alga" from the acid waters of "Lemonade Spring", The Geysers, Sonoma County, California. Later work suggested that it was similar to forms of Cyanidium caldarium independently discovered by Hiroyuki Hirose (1950), Felix Eugen Fritsch (1945),[24] and Kenichiro Negoro (1935).[25] Allen was also able to study blue-green algae, publishing a "fundamental paper" on their cultivation in 1952.[4][26][27]

University of California, Berkeley

[edit]

In the mid 1950s, Allen worked at the University of California, Berkeley with Daniel I. Arnon and F. Robert Whatley in breakthrough research on the role of chloroplasts in photosynthesis processes.[28] Arnon et al. were the first to publish a demonstration of the synthesis of ATP in light by chloroplasts in 1954, followed by a more detailed paper by Allen et al. in 1955.[29][30][31][32][33]

In 53 I came into a lab. where, in fact, three different people – Arnon, myself and Mary Belle Allen – had suddenly decided, from different points of view, that chloroplasts must be able to make ATP. ... So we actually set out to discover this.

— F. Robert Whatley [34]: 45/1 

A visiting student describes the type of procedure that was followed:[34]

Arnon had, you know, the white towels laid out all over the bench. Marybelle had the mortar and pestle and the acid-cleaned sand, and Andy and I were down there with the stuff ready to go. And Marybelle and Bob, the four of us, lined up when Arnon, in a pristine white coat and so forth, marched in with a tray full of spinach that had been kept in the cold room to be nice and crisp. And the procedure started. It was ceremonial, absolutely incredible. Marybelle and Bob dumped the leaves in the mortar and pestle, someone dumped the sand in, Arnon grabbed the pestle and ground the [spinach], they went to the right centrifuge with the right speed with the right head on it, spun down the cell debris, they got beautiful dark green colours -- pure chloroplasts.

— R. Clinton Fuller[34]: 32/9–10 

Allen investigated nitrogen fixing of blue green algae and other microorganisms in both freshwater and oceans. She studied the growth of algae alongside rice as a way of enhancing the fertility of rice.[35] As of 1956, she reported on the photosynthetic products of Chlamydomonas.[36] In January 1957 she was listed by the Phycological Society of America as studying plankton as an assistant research biochemist and lecturer in physiology in the Department of Soils and Plant Nutrition, University of California, Berkeley.[37]

In 1967 Allen was nominated jointly for a Nobel Prize with D.I.Arnon and Frederick Whatley. The nomination was put forward by J.H.Northrop but was not successful.[6]

Kaiser Foundation Research Institute

[edit]

In 1958, the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute (Kaiser Permanente) formally established a Laboratory of Comparative Physiology and Morphology in Richmond, California, for fundamental research in comparative biology. Ellsworth C. Dougherty was named the director, and Mary Belle Allen was named the associate director.[38][39] Using spectrophotometry and other techniques, she continued to examine chlorophyll absorption[40] and to study algal phylogenesis.[4]

In 1960 she edited the published proceedings of the First Annual Symposium on Comparative Biology of the Kaiser Permanente Research Institute in Richmond.[41][4] Allen received funding from a number of sources including the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.[4] In 1962 she received the Darbaker Prize from the Botanical Society of America "for outstanding contributions to phycology".[1][42]

University of Alaska

[edit]

In 1966 Allen was recruited as professor of microbiology at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, Alaska. There she worked with the Institute of Marine Science[43] She studied high-latitude phytoplankton[44] and chrysophyceae.[4][45] To better understand populations of aquatic microorganisms in lakes in interior Alaska, she studied bacteria in soil, which can wash into lakes. This research led to an unexpected result. She found that in many soil samples there were very few bacterial cells; some were comparable to sterilized soil.[46]

She did more than use the algae as models and tools for unravelling the intricacies of photosynthesis; in her studies and reviews, she skillfully bridged the biochemistry with the physiology and ecology of organisms, trying to integrate in a productive way laboratory and field studies.[4]

Memberships

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Publications

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The standard author abbreviation M.B.Allen is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[47]
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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Darbaker Prize". Botanical Society of America. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cattell, Jaques, ed. (1949). "Allen, Dr. Mary Belle". American Men of Science: A Biographical Directory. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The Science Press. p. 838.
  3. ^ "Scientist Mary Belle Allen found dead at her residence". Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Fairbanks, Alaska. 27 October 1973. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Provasoli, L.; Hutner, S. H. (September 1974). "Mary Belle Allen 1922–1973". Phycologia. 13 (3): 269. Bibcode:1974Phyco..13..269P. doi:10.2216/i0031-8884-13-3-269.1. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  5. ^ "Index of Botanists: Allen, Mary Belle". Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Nomination Archive – M B Allen". NobelPrize.org. April 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  7. ^ Brummitt, R. K.; Powell, C. E. (1992). Authors of plant names : a list of authors of scientific names of plants, with recommended standard forms of their names, including abbreviations. [London]: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-947643-44-7.
  8. ^ Zander, Robert; Encke, Fritz; Buchheim, Günther; Seybold, Siegmund, eds. (1984). Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen (13 ed.). Stuttgart: Ulmer Verlag. ISBN 9783800150427.
  9. ^ "Dorothy Llewellyn Allen Flynn 1924 - 2018". Daily Democrat. May 4, 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  10. ^ University of California Register, 1940-41. Vol. II. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 1941. p. 90. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  11. ^ "Class of 1941". Blue and Gold Yearbook. Berkeley, CA: University of California Berkeley. 1941. p. 70.
  12. ^ a b c d e Kamen, Martin David (1 January 1985). Radiant Science, Dark Politics: A Memoir of the Nuclear Age. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 143, 201, 267. ISBN 978-0-520-04929-1. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  13. ^ Benson, A. A. (June 2002). "Paving the Path". Annual Review of Plant Biology. 53 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1146/annurev.arplant.53.091201.142547. PMID 12221968. S2CID 5780582.
  14. ^ Benson, A. A. (December 2, 2012). "Tracers in biology". In Kaplan, Nathan; Robinson, Arthur (eds.). From Cyclotrons To Cytochromes: Essays in Molecular Biology and Chemistry. New York, London: Academic Press. p. 60. ISBN 9780323142052. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  15. ^ "Lawrence Radiation Laboratory Manhattan Engineering District records, Undated". American Institute of Physics. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  16. ^ Norris, T. H.; Ruben, S.; Allen, M. B. (December 1942). "Tracer Studies with Radioactive Hydrogen. Some Experiments on Photosynthesis and Chlorophyll". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 64 (12): 3037–3040. doi:10.1021/ja01264a087.
  17. ^ Allen, Mary Belle (1946). Phosphorus in Starch: Nature and reactions of starch phosphate. Enzymatic phosphorylation of starch and synthesis of amylopectin. New York: Columbia University.
  18. ^ a b c "News-Makers". Chemical & Engineering News Archive. 25 (46): 3440–3443. 17 November 1947. doi:10.1021/cen-v025n046.p3440. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  19. ^ "News and Notes". Science. 104 (2688). American Association for the Advancement of Science: 10–16. 1946. Bibcode:1946Sci...104...10.. doi:10.1126/science.104.2688.10. JSTOR 1675930. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  20. ^ "History of the Marine Biological Laboratory". Washington University. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  21. ^ Rosenberg, Jerome L. (2004). "The contributions of James Franck to photosynthesis research: a tribute". Photosynthesis Research. 80 (1–3): 71–76. Bibcode:2004PhoRe..80...71R. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.421.1992. doi:10.1023/B:PRES.0000030453.66865.f6. PMID 16328811. S2CID 16805249.
  22. ^ a b "Stanford University Bulletin Annual Report of the President of Stanford University for the fifty-sixth academic Year, ending August 31, 1948". Stanford University. August 31, 1948. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  23. ^ a b c Allen, Mary Belle (1 June 1953). "The thermophilic aerobic sporeforming bacteria". Bacteriological Reviews. 17 (2): 125–173. doi:10.1128/br.17.2.125-173.1953. PMC 180763. PMID 13058821.
  24. ^ Brock, Thomas D. (1978). Thermophilic microorganisms and life at high temperatures. New York: Springer-Verlag. p. 271. ISBN 9780387903095. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  25. ^ Fukuda, Ikujiro (1994). "Chapter 10: Cyanidium investigations in Japan". In Seckbach, Joseph (ed.). Evolutionary pathways and enigmatic algae : Cyanidium caldarium (Rhodophyta) and related cells. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 153–156. ISBN 978-0-7923-2635-9. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  26. ^ Schlichting, Harold E. (1974). "Survival of Some Fresh-Water Algae under Extreme Environmental Conditions". Transactions of the American Microscopical Society. 93 (4): 610–613. doi:10.2307/3225162. ISSN 0003-0023. JSTOR 3225162. PMID 4614531.
  27. ^ Allen, M. B. (1 January 1952). "The cultivation of myxophyceae". Archiv für Mikrobiologie. 17 (1): 34–53. doi:10.1007/BF00410816. ISSN 1432-072X. S2CID 20787061.
  28. ^ "Tribute to Daniel Arnon: 50th anniversary of key photosynthesis discoveries" (PDF). Breakthroughs. 10 (1). College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley: 19, 26. 2004. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  29. ^ Govindjee; Beatty, J. Thomas; Gest, Howard; Allen, John F. (July 15, 2006). Discoveries in Photosynthesis. Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration. Vol. 20. The Netherlands: Springer. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-4020-3323-0.
  30. ^ Nickelsen, Kärin (June 17, 2015). Explaining Photosynthesis: Models of Biochemical Mechanisms, 1840-1960. Heidelberg, New York, London: Springer. pp. 263–266. ISBN 9789401795821. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  31. ^ Arnon, Daniel I.; Whatley, F. R.; Allen, M. B. (1 December 1954). "Photosynthesis by Isolated Chloroplasts. II. Photosynthetic Phosphorylation, the Conversion of Light into Phosphate Bond Energy". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 76 (24): 6324–6329. doi:10.1021/ja01653a025. ISSN 0002-7863. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  32. ^ Allen, M. B.; Arnon, Daniel I.; Capindale, J. B.; Whatley, F. R.; Durham, Lois J. (1 August 1955). "Photosynthesis by Isolated Chloroplasts. III. Evidence for Complete Photosynthesis1". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 77 (15): 4149–4155. doi:10.1021/ja01620a052. ISSN 0002-7863. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  33. ^ Allen, M. B.; Whatley, F. R.; Arnon, Daniel I. (1 January 1958). "Photosynthesis by isolated chloroplasts: VI. Rates of conversion of light into chemical energy in photosynthetic phosphorylation". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. 27 (1): 16–23. doi:10.1016/0006-3002(58)90288-9. ISSN 0006-3002. PMID 13510247. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  34. ^ a b c Moses, Vivian; Moses, Sheila. "THE CALVIN LAB: BIO-ORGANIC CHEMISTRY GROUP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, 1945-1963 Volume II Interviews conducted by Vivian and Sheila Moses December 1995 - September 1997" (PDF). Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library University of California Berkeley, California. The Regents of the University of California. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  35. ^ Benveniste, Guy; Kastens, Merritt L. (1956). "World Symposium on Applied Solar Energy". Science. 123 (3202): 826–831. Bibcode:1956Sci...123..826B. doi:10.1126/science.123.3202.826. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 1750208. PMID 17821650. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  36. ^ Allen, Mary Belle (1 June 1956). "Excretion of organic compounds by Chlamydomonas". Archiv für Mikrobiologie. 24 (2): 163–168. doi:10.1007/BF00408630. ISSN 1432-072X. PMID 13327993. S2CID 39803097.
  37. ^ "Members as of January 1, 1957" (PDF). The Phycological Society of America News Bulletin. X (29): 1. 1957. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  38. ^ "Scientists in the News". Science. 127 (3299): 638–639. 1958. Bibcode:1958Sci...127..638.. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 1755789. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  39. ^ "Marking half a century of stellar research". Kaiser Permanente. August 13, 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  40. ^ Giese, Arthur C. (1964). Photophysiology: General Principles; Action of Light on Plants. New York: Academic Press. pp. 85–109. ISBN 9781483262277. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  41. ^ Goldsmith, T. H. (1963). "Review of Comparative Biochemistry of Photoreactive Systems. Symposia on Comparative Biology. Volume 1., by M. B. Allen". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 38 (1): 106. doi:10.1086/403788. JSTOR 2816278. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  42. ^ "AIBS Reports". AIBS Bulletin. 12 (6): 36. 1962. doi:10.1093/aibsbulletin/12.6.36. ISSN 0096-7645. JSTOR 1292943. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  43. ^ "Faculty Appointees" (PDF). Summer News. Vol. II, no. 11. University of Alaska. August 25, 1966. p. 3. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  44. ^ Allen, Mary Belle (1 November 1971). "High-Latitude Phytoplankton". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 2 (1): 261–276. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.02.110171.001401. ISSN 0066-4162.
  45. ^ Allen, Mary Belle (1 October 1969). "Structure, physiology, and biochemistry of the chrysophyceae". Annual Review of Microbiology. 23 (1): 29–46. doi:10.1146/annurev.mi.23.100169.000333. ISSN 0066-4227. PMID 4899076. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  46. ^ Helfferich, Carla (December 4, 1991). "Some Straight Skinny on Soil". Alaska Science Forum. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  47. ^ International Plant Names Index.  M.B.Allen.
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