September 25, 1974

Dr. Paul Baumann .
Department of Microbiology
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

Dear Dr. Baumann,

I am writing to you in the light of your extensive publications
on the taxonomy and characterization of the Beneckea group. I was very
much intrigued to read Eagon's note of a dozen years ago about the very
rapid growth~rete of B. natriegens. The biochemical adaptations that are
involved in remarkably rapid replication are of very great considerable
interest, both from a theoretical stanpoint and for the possibility of
providing the most convenient experimental materials.

I have not been able to find any further reference to this
characteristic and I trust that it still stands as a reliable observation.

Can you help me out with respect to that information? Have the other
Beneckea strains been looked at from the sane point of view?

If there is still some exploration to be done, we would be glad to
look at these measures in our own laboratory and would be grateful to you
for a sampling of perhaps a dozen representative strains. If some particular
organism in this group does stand out on the basis of prior study as being
the fastest-growing, especially in defined media, then my task is simplified
and I have but to request of you that you send me the corresponding strain
and if you would whatever background information is relevant to the optimal
exhibition of its growth characteristics.

In any case, I would also be grateful if you could send me your recent
papers on this group of bacteria. Certainly we owe you a debt for bringing
them to our consciousness.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics

JL/rr