Generation Of Geneticists Research Articles

Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch. 6 October 1907—7 November 2007

Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch was a pioneer in establishing the field of mammalian developmental genetics, bringing together experimental embryology and genetics at a time when the role of genes in development was far from accepted. She studied in Germany in the 1930s with the renowned experimental embryologist Hans Spemann and then moved to New York City where she spent her entire professional career at Columbia University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Her career was remarkable not only for its longevity—she continued experiments well into her 90s—but also for ushering in new ways of approaching developmental biology in mammals. In her studies of theT-complex in mice, she made use of naturally occurring mutations as nature's own experiments that allowed the investigation of the normal role of the genes in the events of morphogenesis. In her later work with the albino chromosomal deletions, she extended her studies to the genetics of physiological traits. Throughout the decades that saw a blossoming of the entire field of genetics, Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch's work tackling some of the most perplexing problems in mammalian genetics firmly established the mouse as model organism, not only for studying development, but also for the eventual application of molecular biology techniques to development. Her published work is a beautifully coherent and rigorous opus, for which she received many honours. Her influence on a generation of geneticists, developmental biologists and the field of developmental genetics was profound.The life of Salome Gluecksohn–Waelsch spanned a century that suffered the destructive upheaval of two world wars but also saw phenomenal progress in the sciences, including embryology and genetics. At the start of Salome's career, these two fields were far apart and developmental genetics was barely a concept. Along with a few other pioneers, Salome was instrumental in establishing that genes actually had roles in development and in founding the field of mammalian developmental genetics. Her career laid the ground work for the eventual integration of genetic and developmental studies through molecular biology.Salome Gluecksohn–Waelsch published under four different names at different stages of her life and career: Salome Glücksohn, Salome Gluecksohn–Schoenheimer, Salome Gluecksohn–Waelsch, and Salome G. Waelsch. Among her colleagues and friends, she was almost universally known as Salome and so for the purpose of this biographical memoir, I have chosen to refer to her by her first name, out of friendship and respect.

The Great Adventure of an American Human Geneticist.

It is my great pleasure to have been asked by the Editorial Committee of the Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics to write a short autobiography of my life in genetics over the past 70 years. It has been a great adventure. I came both to America and to human genetics by a circuitous and ultimately very fortunate route. I hope the next generation of geneticists will enjoy reading about it.

Of mice and cats (both calico): Mary F Lyon, FRS (1925-2014).

Of mice and cats (both calico): Mary F Lyon, FRS (1925-2014).

Deep Reads: Strands in the History of Molecular Genetics

The history of molecular genetics, its precursors and descendants, is rich in events and colorful characters intertwining through the tumultuous history of the mid20th century. In this second iteration of ‘‘Deep Reads,’’ I try to trace selected strands in the ancestry of the field as told in histories, biographies, and memoirs, some of which I have, unlike Johnson, read through (Image 1). These recommendations form a tale of three successive intellectual utopias. In the first act, the precursors of molecular genetics take hold among physicists, in particular in those around Niels Bohr. In the second act, molecular genetics emerges in the 1940s, spreading out from the phage group and together with structural biology forming the nascent field of molecular biology. In the third act, a diaspora generation of geneticists applies the style of phage genetics to a menagerie of organisms: Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, zebrafish, and Arabidopsis, among others. First though, for an epic and accessible history of molecular biology and genetics, I, like Jane Gitschier in the 2013 ‘‘Deep Reads,:Recommendations from Jane Gitschier9s Bookshelf ’’ return again to Horace Freeland Judson’s The Eighth Day of Creation (1979, expanded edition in 1996). I first read this as a teenager and remain captivated by Judson’s crisp, drama-filled accounts of discovery, based on countless interviews with the participants. As well as recounting the eureka moments, Judson also gives us the twists and turns, the blind alleys, and the failed experiments. A high point is the story of the maelstrom of experiment and theory that led to the deciphering of the genetic code (Part II, ‘‘RNA: The Functions of the Structure’’). If you read one book on the history of modern genetics, this has to be it!

Mendel's genes: toward a full molecular characterization.

The discipline of classical genetics is founded on the hereditary behavior of the seven genes studied by Gregor Mendel. The advent of molecular techniques has unveiled much about the identity of these genes. To date, four genes have been sequenced: A (flower color), LE (stem length), I (cotyledon color), and R (seed shape). Two of the other three genes, GP (pod color) and FA (fasciation), are amenable to candidate gene approaches on the basis of their function, linkage relationships, and synteny between the pea and Medicago genomes. However, even the gene (locus) identity is not known for certain for the seventh character, the pod form, although it is probably V. While the nature of the mutations used by Mendel cannot be determined with certainty, on the basis of the varieties available in Europe in the 1850s, we can speculate on their nature. It turns out that these mutations are attributable to a range of causes-from simple base substitutions and changes to splice sites to the insertion of a transposon-like element. These findings provide a fascinating connection between Mendelian genetics and molecular biology that can be used very effectively in teaching new generations of geneticists. Mendel's characters also provide novel insights into the nature of the genes responsible for characteristics of agronomic and consumer importance.

David Guthrie Catcheside, 31 May 1907 - 1 June 1994

David Catcheside was one of the seminal figures in the post-war development of genetics, both in the United Kingdom and Australia. He made distinguished contributions in several different areas: plant genetics and cytology, the genetic effects of radiation, fungal biochemical genetics, controls of genetic recombination and, in his retirement, bryology. As a teacher and postgraduate supervisor he played a large part in launching the next generation of geneticists in both hemispheres. As a professor and administrator he was responsible for several new institutional developments including the first Australian Department of Genetics, the first Department of Microbiology at Birmingham and, perhaps most importantly, the Research School of Biological Sciences of the Australian National University.

Where the truth lies: Franz Moewus and the origins of molecular biology

1. Is science fiction? 2. Founding father fables: myth making in the history of genetics 3. Sex and the simple organism: the 'real' origin of molecular genetics? 4. Too good to be true and too true to be dismissed 5. Mendel revisited: are all genetic reports faked? 6. War crimes: gossip about Moewus and the failure of replication 7. Fostering a new generation of geneticists 8. Raising the stakes: a Nobel Prize for Moewus? 9. Big biology and the politics of the Rockefeller Foundation 10. Great expectations: Moewus abroad 11. The Woods Hole trials.

Francis Galton's contribution to genetics.

Francis Galton's role in the development of genetics has been somewhat puzzling to historians; they cannot understand why his contemporaries found his work so stimulating.' True, Galton believed that inheritance is particulate, dependent upon the behavior of large numbers of independent genetic units, but he was neither the first nor the most articulate advocate of that approach. The statistical techniques that he developed, regression and correlation, though useful now, were infrequently employed by the first generation of geneticists, and his Ancestral Law (each parent contributed 1/4 of the heritage of the offspring, each grandparent 1/8, and so on) was superseded rather quickly by the rediscovery of Mendel's laws, which were more carefully derived and potentially much more useful. Galton did not discover a new or truly crucial fact and he did not synthesize a new or truly fruitful model from the facts that were already known. Despite all this many of the founders of modem genetics were inspired by his work, particularly his most important book, Natural Inheritance, which appeared in 1889, just at the beginning of the twenty-year period in which modern genetics was born. What they found in his book was simply this: an operational definition for a word which had long been poorly defined-the word was "heredity." Nowadays when we use the term "heredity" we use it, more often than not, as a chapter heading in a text. Heredity is a broad word, and we use it to describe or summarize a wide range of phenomena all of which have something to do with the transmission of characters between several generations.