April 28, 195)

Dr. Ek. V. Thimann
Biological Laboratories
Harvard University
Cambridge 33
Massachusetts

Dear Dr. Thimann:

You may recall our correspondence last fall on a literature
citation for the diagram of transduction that I had presented
earlier at the local bacteriologists meeting. I do not know how
far along you are with your mamuscript, and quite possibly this
Letter comes too late to be of any use, I have however recently
stuck my neck out on this interpretation, ard can suggest a spece
ifie reference: my paper "Recombination in Bacteria" given April
1° at the Biology Research Conference on Senctic Recombination at
Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Thig should appear in print us a supplement
to the Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology during the
next 4 to 12 months, This matter is of no creat importance, but
I wantea the excuse t ask you whether you gad possibly thought of
including a consideration of chemotaxis in your treatment of
bacterial physiology. This 1s a subject that is not very welle
known by most bacteriologists, most of the literature having ape
peared around the turn of the century, With modern methods, I
believe much more could be made of the problem,

I will also take the occasion to acknowledge with thanks
the private copies of the thesis and the reprint on small colony
variants in yeast, I will of course return them to you ultinctely,

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg

JL mg