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February 26, 1955

Dr. Norton Zinder
Roektefoelles:: Institute
New York 21, N.Y.

Dear Nobgon:

As you probably know, Alan Geren hasbeen tnewiring about: the poss!-
bility of spending a postdatoral fellowship here next year, I would like te
ask your advice about it, Have you discussed this with him yourself? Would
he have learned from you or from Dave Skaar very well the wind of procran
we have had going here? I have tried to find from Garen himself just what
he's after, byt am afraid I did not vet that question across, Actually, ia
addition to our ow lab, facilities, it would not be too difficult to arran-:‘e
for some work at the Enzyme Institute or in the aew Bacteriolozy buildings, for
biophysical experiments. The main thing I'd like to ask you about is just
what you think of Garen, and what ke might get out of a fellowship here (and
what he would bring to us in turn).

IT wonder if you know aneckkexmcbemivax a girl at CS! who vor:s Jor Evelyn
~~ Constance Thomas, who is applying for a zraduate assistantenip, Io so, he
ado you think she would fit in?

Larry told me something of your experiment on "restoration of phage",
but I am afraid I did not get a very coherent account of it, My brother Seymour
has told me of some experiments they've done at Tllinois on the restoration
of UV'd bacteria with phage, and I wondered i> this has anything to do wit.
itf Laryy also forwarded your bill of maferials, and we are vetting these
together for you. However, I don't caiite see how "stable transductions" fit
in. In the first place, all the Gal-- 's zive neterogenttic clones after
transduction; in addition, apparently stable Galy nave been found, in greater
or lesser proportfion with different stocks in different experiments, However,
I am inclined to think that the stable occurrencee are secrevates out of iattial
heterozemmkotes which happened to fall apart early, during intidal purification.
Of morksm course all the heterogenetes sooner or later throw stable serrePahis
of the various parental and crossover types/ so the distincti mS, if any, are
only a matter of timing. But Larry didn't tell me enough of vour idea to see
why the heterogenotes would not be quite as informative as the stable secre:g 1t4,
As ne must have told you, we have not been able to find any vrnanbiomeus evidence
of transduction by lytically crown lanbda (thouzh some observetioas of Esta te
are still unsettled); since induced lambda involves treatment with UV, he
planned to check whether lamplda erown on UV'd bacteria would be competent nis
sounds like quite a different experiment from the one you're plansiac. If I thnce
stand this at all, you should pick up transduction by phare harvested eve
inputs. Since control lytic lambda does not show any obvious jevel of tr
activity, you should be abie to get a fair answer fromf a f'sirly siaple stra
forward experiment using any Galt ——x Gal-. (My mumch is thet this experiment
would be

  

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more likely to work in 4 system where lytic lambda already shows some
ransduciny activity. Have you tried wt with Salmonella or with PI/E. coli?

With best tezards;

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Lederbers

P.S. Don't you already have lambda, lambda-2, K-12, W-1485 stocks, or cant
you get them readily from’ CSH ?