A Hidden LegacyPub Date : 2021-08-13DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0012
Thomas E. Schindler
{"title":"Behind the Laboratory Doors","authors":"Thomas E. Schindler","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter compares Esther Lederberg’s role with that of other notable women scientists whose achievements exhibited creative laboratory skills. Esther’s career peaked in 1956 when the Society of Illinois Bacteriologists jointly bestowed the Pasteur Medal on the Lederberg couple. Usually, Joshua Lederberg was the public face of their research program. Esther’s place was behind the laboratory doors where she managed the lab and performed the experiments. For over a hundred years, this was the typical arrangement for women and their male associates. Prestigious faculty positions and accolades were unattainable for so many women in science. For Esther and many of her female colleagues, the thrill of discovery was enough reward. Esther valued the camaraderie of the brilliant personalities that made up the circle of pioneering researchers. Stanley Falkow called her a kind of Boswell of bacterial genetics. Her extensive photographic collection is a who’s who of molecular biology, many as their younger selves.","PeriodicalId":174043,"journal":{"name":"A Hidden Legacy","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130523357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A Hidden LegacyPub Date : 2021-08-13DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0015
T. Schindler
{"title":"The Central Importance of E. coli and λ Phage in the New Molecular Biology","authors":"T. Schindler","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0015","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter considers two of the most important legacies of the Lederbergs’ pioneering work: the discoveries of the model organisms that would dominate molecular biology, E. coli and λ bacteriophage. The Lederbergs’ introduction of E. coli as a convenient model organism shifted the direction of molecular genetics. Barbara McClintock’s discovery of jumping genes remained unappreciated for decades, until the field of molecular biology caught up to validate her transposable elements in bacteria. The discovery of restriction enzymes—the molecular scissors for precisely cutting DNA at specific sites, a prerequisite for genetic recombination techniques—emphasized the versatility of bacteriophage λ as a powerful experimental tool. The discovery of specialized transduction by Larry Morse and Esther Lederberg hinted at the mechanisms of “host restriction.” Werner Arber and Daisy Dussoix discovered restriction endonucleases by building upon Esther Lederberg’s research with λ phage and the differences between E. coli B and K-12.","PeriodicalId":174043,"journal":{"name":"A Hidden Legacy","volume":"696 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116116296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A Hidden LegacyPub Date : 2021-08-13DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0002
Thomas E. Schindler
{"title":"An Abiding Affection","authors":"Thomas E. Schindler","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter provides a brief outline of Esther Zimmer’s early life. Born in 1922 to immigrant Jewish parents who had moved from Manhattan’s Lower East Side to the South Bronx, she demonstrated a talent for languages at an early age, learning biblical Hebrew from her grandfather and later distinguishing herself in Spanish and French. Despite her professors’ expectations that she become a foreign language teacher, Zimmer chose to become a scientist. Her love affair with microorganisms began in the mycology laboratory of the New York Botanical Gardens, her abiding affection for bacteria, especially E. coli K-12, memorialized in the beach house named Kappa Dodici, Italian for K-12. For Esther, this particular bacterial strain displayed the treasures of bacterial sex uncovered by her research. Esther cherished the joy of discovery far beyond academic tenure or recognition. Like renowned physicist Richard Feynman, her prime motivation for doing laboratory research was “the sheer pleasure of finding things out.”","PeriodicalId":174043,"journal":{"name":"A Hidden Legacy","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131519744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A Hidden LegacyPub Date : 2021-08-13DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0005
T. Schindler
{"title":"The Anomaly of Bacterial Genetics","authors":"T. Schindler","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197531679.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter reviews the research that set the stage for Joshua Lederberg’s surprising discovery of bacterial conjugation. While the foundational research of Gregor Mendel and his principles of inheritance had been effectively combined with Darwinian evolution, producing the Modern Synthesis in the mid-forties, bacteria did not fit into this grand synthesis. Most biologists believed that bacteria were too primitive to have real genes. But Delbruck, Hershey and Luria organized the Phage School, leading a novel approach to discovering the molecular biology of the gene by studying bacteriophages. Microbiologists like Tracy Sonneborn and Carl Lindegren turned to alternative microorganisms—protists, fungi, and yeast—to develop new model systems that offered advantages over the classical genetics organisms of animals and plants. The research of Edward Tatum and Jacques Monod indicated that mutations seemed to explain variation in bacteria. For many years, however, bacteriologists had known that bacteria reproduced by fission. The lack of any genetic hybridization seemed to argue against using bacteria to study basic genetic processes.","PeriodicalId":174043,"journal":{"name":"A Hidden Legacy","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129972091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}