THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY

1230 YORK AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10021

May 31, 1988

 

JOSHUA LEDERBERG

PRESIDENT

Dr. Emilio Weiss b. (V8
3612 Raymond Street
Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815

Dear Dr. Weiss:

I was very interested indeed to receive your letter of
May 23rd and the very fascinating information that it conveyed.
The affinities that you describe within prokaryote evolution
are indeed very interesting. However, can we yet reach a
final conclusion about the speculative possibility of genetic
homology of the glycosyl transferases by an examination of the
16SR RNA? One would have to look more comprehensively and,
in a more focussed way, to determine if there are homologous
DNA sequences responsible for the recurrence of the glycosyl
transferase in different bacteria.

’ understand that the experiments you cited to me give no
evidence for a relationship between Proteus and Rickettsia,
‘but that is.still some distance from ruling out a gene transfer
hypothesis which would be a modern expression of the idea of
paragglutination, that we associate with the names of Weil and
Felix.

When you do have further publications on the subject I do
hope you will apprise me of them. Meanwhile with best regards,

Yours sincerely,

hua Lederberg