To: zinf009@rzbox.uni-wuerzburg.de (Gabriele Blum-Oehler) 091
Fec: inbox JAN 16

Subject: K-12 (Clifton?)

Thank you for the reprint.

I have no detailed information about K-12 between 1922 and 1944.
Tatum first mentions it in:

E. L. Tatum and D. Bonner. Indole and serine in the
biosynthesis and breakdown of tryptophan, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.,
30: 30-37. (1944)

He says only that he received strain K-12 from C.E. Clifton’.

I presume it was kept on nutrient agar slopes in the departmental
stock collection. Tatum then used the same strain in his initial
production of auxotrophic mutants in bacteria:

Cc. H. Gray and E. L. Tatum. X-ray induced growth factor
requirements in bacteria, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 30: 404-10
(1944)

* he may have used K-12 in his studies on assimilation.
Try J. Bact. 37:523 1939.

Reply-to: (J. Lederberg) lederberg@rockvax.rockefeller.edu

Prof. Joshua Lederberg

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