Challenge to the Specialist: Abraham Trembley's Approach to Research on the Organism—1744 and Today

Abstract

Synopsis. We define an organismic biologist as one whose research is focused primarily on a single organism, or group of related organisms, and who investigates virtually the whole of nature as lived by that organism. We contrast an organismic biologist with a problem-oriented biologist, that is one who uses an organism, or a group of organisms, in order to investigate a particular question. In our view, the consummate organismic biologist has an outlook that allows her or him to conduct research on organisms with an open eye, to follow the cues offered by the organism, and to switch and learn new disciplines when the challenge to understanding the particular organism leads the investigator in those directions. We provide examples ofthe organismic approach of Abraham Trembley working in the eighteenth century and of the senior author working in the twentieth century. Both focused their investigations mostly on the freshwater hydra. While studying hydra, Trembley demonstrated that: (a) complete animals can regenerate from small, cut pieces of those animals; (b) animals can reproduce asexually by budding; (c) tissue sections from two different animals of the same species can be grafted to each other; (d) the materials oozing out of the edges of cut tissue have properties that fit the definition of protoplasm as described by Dujardin one hundred years later; (e) living tissues can be stained, and those stained tissues can be used in experiments; and (f) eyeless animals can exhibit a behavioral response to light. Some ofthe topics investigated in hydra by the senior author and his students are: (a) behavioral responses to the peptide reduced glutathione and to tryosine; (b) mechanism of activation of the receptor to glutathione; (c) migration of nematocytes; (d) algal-animal endosymbiosis; (e) an unusual disulfide-linked collagen of nematocyst capsules; (f) components and action of nematocyst venom; (g) intracellular digestion of radioactive protein; (h) composition of and role in cellular adhesion of the mesoglea; and, (k) a developmental mutant and role of nerve cells in promoting budding. We conclude with a proposal for one way to train future organismic biologists at the graduate and post graduate levels. This proposal grew out of our perception of the need to provide environments that nurture scientists who, by studying organisms, will find and define new experimental systems for the next waves of biological discovery yet to come when the specialists begin to investigate even more intensively the interactions between cells, tissues, organisms, and communities. Specifically, we propose that on the campuses of several major universities having a broad range of graduate programs, there be established year-round Institutes for Organismic Marine Biology focused on the investigation of organisms not previously amenable to systematic experimentation. We believe that if America's biology is to remain vibrant and innovative, organismic biology should be an integral component in any long term planning for research and training in the biological sciences.