Boris Mikhailovich Kozo-Polyansky (Russian: Борис Михайлович Козо-Полянский; 20 January 1890 – 21 April 1957) was a Soviet and Russian botanist and evolutionary biologist, best known for his seminal work, Symbiogenesis: A New Principle of Evolution, which was the first work to place the theory of symbiogenesis into a Darwinian evolutionary context, as well as one of the first to redefine cell theory.

[4] Symbiogenesis, the theory which describes the endosymbiotic origin of Eukaryotic cells, which endocytosed smaller prokaryotes that later became DNA containing organelles such as mitochondria and plastids, was first suggested by Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper (1856 –1901) in his 1883 seminal paper: “On the development of chlorophyll grains and color bodies.”[5] However, the theory wasn't detailed in a substantial manner until Konstantin Mereschkowski (1855–1921) published his 1905 paper, "The nature and origins of chromatophores in the plant kingdom," where the term Symbiogenesis was first coined.

[6] It was in this academic landscape that Kozo-Polyansky pioneered the idea that symbiogenesis could be explained through the classical Darwinian notion of evolution, something his two predecessors failed to do.

''Natura facit saltum'' [''Nature does make leaps''] (2) Therefore, searches for intermediate forms, missing links [these two words given in English - Ed.

Kozo-Polyansky ultimately posited that symbiogenesis was a source of evolutionary novelty and that Darwinian mechanisms, such as natural selection, were responsible for maintaining the heritable changes brought about by symbiotic interactions.

[1] And due to the language barrier of Russian, was never read in the West, where English and German evolutionary works dominated the academic landscape.

[1] With the revival of evolutionary symbiogenesis, Margulis was made aware of Kozo-Polyansky's work by a former student of his, Armen Takhtajan at the 1975 International Conference of Botany.

Essay on the Theory of Symbiogenesis, Moscow, 1924[7][2] The main biogenetic law from the botanical point of view, Voronezh, 1937[2] Tea plants of Kazakhstan / Kazakh branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences; Otv.