SEP 2 8 1473

THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
Laboratory of Genetics
Genetics Building

MADISON, WISCONSIN 53706
25 September 1973

Department of Genetics Department of Medical Genetics

College of Agricultural and Life Sciences School of Medicine

Professor J. Lederberg

Department of Genetics

Stanford University Medical School
Stanford, CA 94305

Dear Josh:
Thanks for your kind letter of September 10.

Your special interest is noted in documenting the attitudes
of biologists at the time of your appointment here toward the
striking new genetic findings that were bringing you to the fore.
A few excerpts from the letter of recommendation, a copy of
which I could not send you,because of reservations on the author's
part are significant in this relation. You as a person and your
scientific work are confounded with each other in the replies he
obtained. I shall quote, of course, without identifying sources.

The writer of the letter referred to took the trouble to
ascertain the views of a few fellow biologists with whom he was
able to talk personally concerning you and your pioneer work.

One of the persons interviewed was somewhat distrustful of
you "on the suspicion that his ambition and enthusiasm lead him
to advocate the most spectacular conclusions from experimental
data that would only set more stable workers on a long series of
cautious checks."

Another person took a quite different attitude, stating that
"Josh recognizes his deficiences in technique, is the first to
distrust results of his own that are out of line and repeats them
until he is satisfied that they are repeatable and welcomes
criticism and repetition of his work by others he trusts."

Still another associate is quoted as referring to you as
"one of the most brilliant minds in biology today, and he trusts
his work implicitly."

The writer of the letter also stated that "although two other
investigators have failed to confirm the ‘sex in bacteria!’ work...

aWISN
Professor J. Lederberg 25 September 1973 Page 2

it now seems clear to me that to regard his work as untrust-
worthy is unjust."

As mentioned earlier, certain of my Wisconsin colleagues,
previously opposed, switched position and voted to invite you
to Wisconsin on the basis of the letter being withheld.

L. J. Cole was retired and in ill health at the time you
were under consideration for appointment here, and took no part
in the discussions. Cole and W. H. Wright (Agric., Bact. Dept.)
in 1916 published an article entitled "Application of the pure-
line concept to bacteria" in J. Infect. Diseases 19: 209-22.

I do not recall Cole expressing any particular interest in the
genetics of bacteria later on, that is, during my association
with him (after 1922).

A brief comment will be made concerning the reference in
the last paragraph of your September 10 letter to improving the
nutritional value of cereal proteins. This is now one of the
most active areas in plant breeding here and abroad. After
various false starts by others over the years, my present col-
league, Oliver Nelson (then at Purdue) and associates, about
10 years ago, opened up the field in an exceedingly promising
way with the discovery that the opaque-2 gene greatly increased
the content of lysine and tryptophan in corn endosperm. (Corn
has the lowest quality protein among the major cereals.) Mutants
with somewhat similar effects have since been found by others
in barley and sorghum. Intensive work to the same end is also
in progress with rice, particularly under the sponsorship of the
Rockefeller and Ford Foundations in the Phillipines.

The opaque-2 gene (and another maize mutant, opaque-7, with
a comparable effect on protein quality) reduces yield of grain,
ten percent or so, delays seed maturity, reduces germinability
and also significantly increases susceptibility to certain fungus
and insect pests. The extent to which the several effects of
opaque-7 wary independently in response to different mutations
at the locus is a qaestion in which I have recently become
interested. Am currently attempting to generate a spectrum of
O7 variants by "transposition mutagenesis", using a scheme patterned
on McClintock's Ac-Ds system. This particular approach is novel,
so far as I know, and it is too early to say whether it will be
effective.

We are much interested, of course, in Peter Carlson's work
on the hybridization of vegetative cells in flowering plants.
Professor J. Lederberg 25 September 1973 Page 3

He was definitely interested in the position on our staff that
we recently offered him following a visit to Madison. He has
decided, however, to remain at Brookhaven for the time being

so that Mrs. Carlson can continue graduate work in psychology
in New York City of a sort said to be unavailable elsewhere.
Our offer probably will be renewed later, and we hope Carlson's
seeming interest in Wisconsin will stay alive.

Sincerely yours,
R. A. peas
Emeritus Professor of Genetics