Kursanov, Andrei
Kursanov, Andrei L’vovich
Born Oct. 26 (Nov. 8), 1902. Soviet plant physiologist and biochemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1953; corresponding member, 1946). Hero of Socialist Labor (1969).
Kursanov is the son of L. I. Kursanov. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1926. From 1935 to 1953 he was director of the laboratory of the Institute of Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1952 he became director of the K. A. Timiriazev Institute of Plant Physiology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1954 he founded and became editor in chief of the journal Fiziologiia rastenii (Plant Physiology).
Kursanov developed a theory of enzyme action in living plant cells. In collaboration with A. I. Oparin, he investigated the tannins in tea and other plants. With M. N. Zaprometov, he discovered the ability of tea catechins to strengthen the walls of blood capillaries. He elucidated the stages of the primary inclusion of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium salts in the metabolism of the absorption cells of roots. He developed a theory of the transfer of organic substances in plants and of the deposit of these substances in reserve. Kursanov is a member of a number of foreign academies and societies. He has been awarded three Orders of Lenin, two other orders, one foreign order, and several medals.
WORKS
Obratimoe deistvie fermentov v zhivoi rastitel’noi kletke. Moscow-Leningrad, 1940.“Kornevaia sistema rastenii kak organ obmena veshchestv.” Izv. AN SSSR: Ser. biol, 1957, no. 6.
Vzaimosviaz’ fiziologicheskikh protsessov v rastenii. Moscow, 1960. (Timiriazevskie chteniia, 20.)
“Transport v rasteniiakh organicheskikh veshchestv-metabolitov.” Uzpekhi sovremennoi biologii, 1966, vol. 62, no. 2 (5).
“Kislorodnyi rezhim kornei i transport kisloroda v rastenii.” Sel’skokhoziaistvennaia biologiia, 1970, vol. 5, no. 2. (Jointly with B. B. Vartapetian.)