Editing Martinus Beijerinck (section)

===Scientific career===
[[File:Martinus Willem Beijerinck 1.jpg|thumb|Beijerinck working in his laboratory]]
He is considered one of the founders of [[virology]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1 = Lustig |first1 = Alice |last2 = Levine |first2 = Arnold J. | title = One Hundred Years of Virology | journal = Journal of Virology | volume = 66 | issue = 8 | pages = 4629–4631 | year = 1992 |location = Washington, D.C.| pmc=241285 | pmid=1629947|doi = 10.1128/JVI.66.8.4629-4631.1992 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bos| first1 = L. | year = 1995 | title = The Embryonic Beginning of Virology: Unbiased Thinking and Dogmatic Stagnation | journal = Archives of Virology | volume = 140 | issue = 3 | pages = 613–619 | doi=10.1007/bf01718437| pmid = 7733832 | s2cid = 23685370 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last = Zaitlin| first = Milton| author-link = Milton Zaitlin| editor1-last = Kung| editor1-first = S. D.| editor2-last = Yang| editor2-first = S. F.| title = Discoveries in Plant Biology| year = 1998| publisher = [[World Publishing Co.]]| location = Hong Kong| isbn = 978-981-02-1313-8| pages = 105–110| chapter = The Discovery of the Causal Agent of the Tobacco Mosaic Disease| chapter-url = http://www.apsnet.org/publications/apsnetfeatures/Documents/1998/ZaitlinDiscoveryCausalAgentTobaccoMosaicVirus.pdf| access-date = 17 October 2011| archive-date = 4 February 2012| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120204055328/http://www.apsnet.org/publications/apsnetfeatures/Documents/1998/ZaitlinDiscoveryCausalAgentTobaccoMosaicVirus.pdf| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Lerner |editor1-first=K. L. |editor2-last=Lerner |editor2-first=B. W. |title=World of Microbiology and Immunology |year=2002 |publisher=Thomas Gage Publishing |isbn=0-7876-6540-1 |quote=Beijerinck asserted that the virus was liquid, but this theory was later disproved by Wendell Stanley, who demonstrated the particulate nature of viruses. Beijerinck, nevertheless, set the stage for twentieth-century virologists to uncover the secrets of viral pathogens now known to cause a wide range of plant and animal (including human) diseases |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/worldofmicrobiol0001unse }}</ref> In 1898, he published results on the filtration experiments demonstrating that [[tobacco mosaic disease]] is caused by an infectious agent smaller than a [[bacterium]].<ref>{{cite journal | last = Beijerinck | first = M. W. | title = Über ein Contagium vivum fluidum als Ursache der Fleckenkrankheit der Tabaksblätter | journal = Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam | volume = 65 | pages = 1–22 | year = 1898 | language = de | url=https://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/publications/PU00011860.pdf}} Translated into English in 
[https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/apsnetfeatures/Documents/1998/BeijerckSpotDiseaseTobaccoLeaves.PDF Johnson, J., Ed. (1942) ''Phytopathological classics.''] (St. Paul, Minnesota: American Phytopathological Society) No. 7, pp. 33–52 (St. Paul, Minnesota) 
</ref>

His results were in accordance with the similar observation made by [[Dmitri Ivanovsky]] in 1892.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Iwanowski | first = D. | title = Über die Mosaikkrankheit der Tabakspflanze | journal = Bulletin Scientifique Publié Par l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg |series=Nouvelle Série III | volume = 35 | pages = 67–70 | location = St. Petersburg | year = 1892 | language = de, ru}} Translated into English in Johnson, J., Ed. (1942) ''Phytopathological classics'' (St. Paul, Minnesota: American Phytopathological Society) No. 7, pp. 27–-30.</ref> Like Ivanovsky before him and [[Adolf Mayer]], predecessor at Wageningen, Beijerinck could not culture the filterable infectious agent; however, he concluded that the agent can replicate and multiply in living plants. He named the new [[pathogen]] ''[[virus]]'' to indicate its non-bacterial nature. Beijerinck asserted that the virus was somewhat liquid in nature, calling it "''[[contagium vivum fluidum]]''" (contagious living fluid).<ref>{{cite book|last=Creager|first=Angela N. H.|date=2002|title=The Life of a Virus: Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an Experimental Model, 1930-1965|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6o8KaupH3e4C&q=contagium+vivum+fluidum|location=Chicago|publisher=University of Chicago Press|page=26|isbn=9780226120256|access-date=11 December 2020|archive-date=11 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201211223053/https://books.google.com/books?id=6o8KaupH3e4C&dq=contagium+vivum+fluidum&source=gbs_navlinks_s|url-status=live}}</ref> It was not until the first crystals of the [[tobacco mosaic virus]] (TMV) obtained by [[Wendell Stanley]] in 1935, the first electron micrographs of TMV produced in 1939 and the first [[X-ray crystallography|X-ray crystallographic analysis]] of TMV performed in 1941 proved that the virus was particulate.

[[Nitrogen fixation]],<ref>Beijerinck, M.W, 1901, ''Über oligonitrophile Mikroben, Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde, Infektionskrankheiten und Hygiene, Abteilung II, Vol 7'', pp. 561–582</ref> the process by which diatomic [[nitrogen]] gas is converted to [[ammonium]] ions and becomes available to plants, was also investigated by Beijerinck. Bacteria perform nitrogen fixation, dwelling inside [[root nodules]] of certain plants ([[legume]]s). In addition to having discovered a biochemical reaction vital to [[soil fertility]] and [[agriculture]], Beijerinck revealed this archetypical example of [[symbiosis]] between [[plants]] and [[bacteria]].

Beijerinck discovered the phenomenon of bacterial [[Sulfate-reducing bacteria|sulfate reduction]], a form of [[anaerobic respiration]]. He learned bacteria could use sulfate as a terminal electron acceptor, instead of oxygen. This discovery has had an important impact on our current understanding of [[biogeochemical cycles]]. ''Spirillum desulfuricans'', now known as ''[[Desulfovibrio desulfuricans]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lpsn.dsmz.de/genus/desulfovibrio |title=Genus ''Desulfovibrio'' |last1=Jean |first1=Euzeby |publisher=[[List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature]] |access-date=November 6, 2014}}</ref> the first known sulfate-reducing bacterium, was isolated and described by Beijerinck.

Beijerinck invented the [[enrichment culture]], a fundamental method of studying [[microbe]]s from the environment. He is often incorrectly credited with framing the microbial ecology idea that "everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects", which was stated by [[Lourens Baas Becking]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=de Wit R, Bouvier T. |title=Everything is everywhere, but, the environment selects; what did Baas Becking and Beijerinck really say? |journal=Environmental Microbiology |year=2006 |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=755–758 |doi=10.1111/j.1462-2920.2006.01017.x |pmid=16584487|bibcode=2006EnvMi...8..755D }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bass-Becking |first=Lourens G.M. |year=1934 |location=[[The Hague]] |publisher=W.P. Van Stockum & Zoon |title=Geobiologie of inleiding tot de milieukunde |trans-title=Geobiology or Introduction to Environmental Science}}</ref>