Kristine Elisabeth Heuch Bonnevie (1872 – 1948) was a Norwegian geneticist and zoologist.
She was the first woman to be appointed professor in Norway, and published significant works in the fields of human and animal genetics. Outside the laboratory, she was honoured for her humanitarian work during both World Wars.
Bonnevie was responsible for setting up homes to accommodate female students at the University of Oslo and, during World War I, organised food and shelter for students from other parts of the country, even renting land where they could grow potatoes.
In 1920, she was one of the founders, and first President, of the Norwegian Association of University Women.
Bonnevie is eponymously associated with Bonnevie-Ulrich syndrome (1932-36), however, this is now most commonly referred to as Turner (female) and Noonan (male) syndrome.
- 1872 – Born 8 October in Trondhjem (then called Nidaros), Norway
- 1886 – Family relocated from Trondheim to Norway’s capital, Kristiania (now Oslo)
- 1892 – Started medical studies at Kongelige Frederiks Universitet [Royal Frederick University, now University of Oslo], but changed course to read zoology, specialising in marine life
- 1906 – PhD with thesis “Undersøgelser over kimcellerne hos Enteroxenos østergreni” – the development of germ cells in parasitic snails
- 1906 – Studied sex chromosomes in sea snakes, Columbia University, New York
- 1908-1919 – Representative on the City Council of Kristiania (Oslo)
- 1911 – First female member of the Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA [Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters]
- 1912 – First extraordinary Professor of Zoology, Kongelige Frederiks Universitet. Instituted a large-scale study of dwarfism, polydactyly and twinning in endogamous, isolated communities in mountainous and fiord regions
- 1916 – Founded the Norwegian Institute of Inheritance Research, along with three other professors, in order to facilitate the study of human genetics.
- 1919 – Ordinary Professor of zoology, Kongelige Frederiks Universitet
- 1920 – One of the founders, and first President, of the Norwegian Association of University Women; Kongens fortjenstmedalje [King’s Medal of Merit in gold]
- 1924 – Hosted the Third International Conference of the International Federation of University Women in Oslo
- 1927 – Worked on gene action during embryogenesis, using hereditary defects in mice as her experimental model. Findings extrapolated by Otto Ullrich (1894 – 1957) as Bonnevie-Ullrich syndrome in humans
- 1935 – Fridtjof Nansen Prize for Outstanding Research
- 1943 – Organised food supplies for the resistance and her students, distributing food packages from her apartment after the university was closed by the Nazis
- 1946 – Den Kongelige Norske Sankt Olavs Orden [Knight, First Class, of the Order of St. Olav]
- 1948 – Died 30 August, Oslo, Norway
- The biology building at the University of Oslo is named Kristine Bonnevie’s house; and the marine vessel for biological research is the Kristine Bonnevie
- Two roads are named after her in Norway: Kristine Bonnevie road, at Tonsenhagen in Oslo and in Stavanger
She had a special position among the students, she was a student’s mother as no one else. Her exceptional ability to socialize with young people, her kindness and good humor made her to everybody’s ante Kristine, but without restriction of her authority.Tove Mohr, Aftenposten 1948
Congenital syndrome consisting of short stature, syndactyly, webbing of the neck (pterygium colli), peripheral lymphoedema of the hands and feet, hypoplasia of bones and muscles, laxity of the skin, dystrophic nails, and motor disturbances of the cranial nerves. Aetiology unknown. Inheritance either X-linked or autosomal dominant.
Bonnevie studied the developmental defects in mice in particular the myelencephalic bleb mouse of Bagg and Little for her studies of abnormal embryogenesis. Lymphoedema of the neck was a major manifestation in these mice. Otto Ullrich (1894 – 1957) extrapolated the data and findings in mice prepared by Bonnevie to human genetic defects in 1936 [Status Bonnevie-Ullrich].
In what proved to be a trail-blazing discovery in the field of mammalian phenogenetics, Kristine Bonnevie (1932, 1934) was enabled by a discerning combination of genetic experiments and embryological analysis to reach a flawless clarification of the formative events underlying various multiple anomalies in an abnormal strain of the house mouse. The mutation analyzed by her was one recovered by Bagg and Little (1924) from a race of inbred, x-rayed mice. It proved to be a monogenic recessive abnormality manifesting itself in the form of very diverse malformations of the head and extremities.
This astonishing revelation of the formative processes responsible for multiple anomalies in Bagg-Little (my) mice was utilized by me in 1936 for the elucidation of very similar complexes of deformities in man.Ullrich 1949
Later the term “Bonnevie-Ullrich” was applied to any form of nuchal webbing which followed localised lymphoedema. This designation included females with gonadal dysgenesis (X0) and males with stunted stature, neck webbing and structural cardiac defects (Noonan syndrome).
1965 Ferguson-Smith defined gonadal dysgenesis in terms of karyotype-phenotype correlations. The eponym “Bonnevie-Ullrich” was applied to the “male Turner” syndrome.
1968 – Noonan further defined the “male Turner” syndrome and her name then replaced the eponym of Bonnevie-Ullrich.
Currently, the term Turner syndrome is applied to females with gonadal dysgenesis and an XO chromosomal constitution; Noonan syndrome for males with stunted stature, variable neck webbing, structural cardiac defects and normal chromosomes; and the Bonnevie-Ullrich eponym has largely fallen into disuse.
- Bonnevie K. Hydroida [indsamlede paa den Norske Nordhavs-expedition]. 1899
- Bonnevie K. Untersuchungen über Keimzellen. 1. Beobachtungen an den Keimzellen von Enteroxenos östergrenl. Jenaische Zeitschrift für Naturwissenschaft. 1906; 229-428
- Bonnevie K. “Heterotypical” Mitosis in Nereis Limbata (Ehlers). Biological Bulletin 1907; 13(2): 57-83
- Bonnevie K. Polydaktyli i norske bygdeslekter, [Polydactyly in Norwegian rural families] Norsk magazin for lægevidenskaben 1919; 80(5:17): 601-623
- Bonnevie K. Natural science. 1923
- Bonnevie K. Studies on Papillary Patterns on Human Fingers, Journal of Genetics 1924; 15: 1-111
- Bonnevie K. Vererbbarer Cerebrospinaldefekt bei Mäusen, mit sekundären Augen- und Fuss-Anomalien, nebst Turmschädelanlage: vorläufige Mitteilung. 1931
- Bonnevie K. Zur Mechanik der Papillarmusterbildung : II. Anomalien der menschlichen Finger- und Zehenbeeren, nebst Diskussion über die Natur der hier wirksamen Epidermispolster. Archiv fur Entwicklungsmechanik der Organismen, 1932;126(2):348-372
- Bonnevie K. Embryological analysis of gene manifestation in Little and Bagg’s abnormal mouse tribe. Journal of Experimental Zoology, 1934; 67: 443–520 [Bonnevie-Ullrich-Turner syndrome]
- Bonnevie K. Die Grundlagen der Erbbiologie des Menschen. 1940
- Bonnevie K, Brodal A. Hereditary hydrocephalus in the house mouse. 1943
- Bonnevie K. New facts on mesoderm formation and proamnion derivatives in the normal mouse embryo. J Morphol. 1950;86(3):495-546.
Under sin levetid å gjennomføre den naturlige etikks mål, å leve opp til det beste i sin egen natur, da vil deres liv utvilsomt ha satt spor som lever videre etter dem, både blant deres medmennesker og i den slekt de tilhørerBonnevie 1939
The individual has done its deed, and life is at an end. But if they have succeeded during their lifetime in arriving at some of the goals of the ethics of Nature, to live according to the best in their characters, then their lives will, without doubt, leave some marks behind among their fellows and relatives
Personal communication: With great thanks to Tove Lill Bjaarstad of Oslo, Norway for the detailed additional information.
- Føyn B. Eulogy. Meeting of Norwegian Academy for Science, 30 September 1949.
- Beighton P, Beighton G. BONNEVIE, Kristine Elisabeth Heuch. In: The Person Behind the Syndrome. Springer 1996: 32-33
- Stamhuis IH, Monsen A. Kristine Bonnevie, Tine Tammes and Elisabeth Schiemann in early genetics: emerging chances for a university career for women. J Hist Biol. 2007;40(3):427-466.
- Nickelsen T. Endelig, Kristine Bonnevie: Dette er ditt liv. Apollon. 2011
- Semb-Johansson A. Kristine Bonnnevie. Norsk biografisk leksikon 1999
- Nordal I, Hessen DO, Lie T. Kristine Bonnevie – et forskerliv. 2012
- A fingerprint on the history of science. Eugenesys
- Bibliography. Bonnevie, Kristine. WorldCat Identities
- Kristine Bonnevie. Norsk Biografisk Leksikon
- Bagg HJ, Little CC. Hereditary structural defects in the descendants of mice exposed to roentgen ray irradiation. The American journal of anatomy, 1924; 33: 119-145
- Cotterman CW. Status Bonnevie-Ullrich. Genetics. 1948; 33(6): 607.
- Keay AJ, Lewis IC. The Bonnevie-Ullrich syndrome. Arch Dis Child. 1954;29(147):424-426.
- Ferguson-Smith MA. Karyotype-phenotype correlations in gonadal dysgenesis and their bearing on the pathogenesis of malformations. J Med Genet. 1965;2(2):142-155.
the person behind the name