UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA

PHILADELPHIA 4

The College

ZOOLOGICAL LaBORATORY
38th St. and Woodland Ave. March 5, 1952

 

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
Department of Genetics
College of Agriculture

The University of Wisconsin
Madison 6, Wisconsin

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

Thank you for your letter of February 28th. Dr. Hutchinson shares
your skepticism about the reliability of the evidence being offered for
chromosomes in bacteria. My interest is from the following point of view.
In organisms higher than bacteria in which definite nuclei are seen, these
nuclei divide by mitosis with the formation of chromosomes. In all higher
organisms, most of the geneties is correlated with the behavior of the
chromosomes and sex (syngamy) is also tied up with the chromosomes. If it
can be shown that bacteria have chromosomes, then these chromosomes can be
thought of as the vehicle for the behavior of the genes, thus placing the
bacteria in harmony with higher organisms. If the genetics of bacteria is
an indication of sex, then the demonstration of chromosomes could be con-
sidered important additional evidence for sex in bacteria. I believe that
De Lamater has very good evidence for mitosis and, therefore, for the evi-
dence of chromosomes. However, I do not want to push this point against
the opposition of both Dr. Hutchinson and yourself. Dr. Hutchinson thought
a final decision might await the presentation of papers at the forthcoming
meeting of the S. A. B. Suppose we let the matter rest until after the
meetings of the S. A. B.

Most sincerely yours,
BU
D. He. Wenrich

DHW: sc