PIO

THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY

pro bono humani generis
1230 YORK AVENUE - NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10021-6399

Joshua Lederberg
UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR

December 15, 1994

Dr. C-A. H. Roten

Institut de génétique

Rue César-Roux 19

CH 1005 Lausanne, SUISSE

Dear Dr. Roten
I was quite intrigued by your paper in Experientia:

TI - Endogenous synthesis of peptidoglycan in eukaryotic cells -
a novel concept involving its essential role in cell
division, tumor formation and the biological clock.

and would welcome a fresh reprint if you can spare it.

(I knew Pappenheimer, and followed his work over the years, and again V. Ivanov in
Moscow, who has been more recently active with sleep peptides .... And I send you some
work years ago where I looked at DAP-deprivation in bacteria.)

But I look for more critical evidence of endogenous synthesis of PG’s in the animal. Axenic
animals should answer the question rather readily: do you know of any efforts? Meanhwile, a
simple but long shot would be to look for PG synthesis in a readily accessible axenical
animal, namely the chick embryo before hatching.

You did quote me accurately as expecting that wide-ranging gene transfer would be found in
ever more cases; I look forward to verification of that here. There is however no room in the
existing mitochondrial genome for it, which is not to say that it was not in the original
progenitors.

How about PG’s in yeast, which also have mitochondria?

Yours ee
ROG:

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