January 17, 1958

Dr. Borde Rotman

Instituto de quimica Fisiologica
Eecuela de Medicina

Universidad de Chile

Borgono 1470, Santiago, Chile

Dear Boris:
To yours of the 3rd.

Fallen back in the routine? Yes. Perhaps "“enmired" would be the better
term.

I realize you have som difficulty in reacting to Bernie's criticism.
It 1s of course up to you to decide. Perhaps you should mention in the intro-
duction that the work was pre-permease, ani you should devete more time in the
discussion to the permease hypothesis. I disagree with Bernie that you should
not set up "straw men" to knock down — that is precisely how one does evolve
a correct nypothesis. Perhaps he lacks some historical perspective.

I ean understand the proposal of making two papers. But one should be
preferred if possible. In the end it my appear that your most valuable contri-
bution will be an assessment of the permease hypothesis. But in further per—
spective, it is not the hypothesis but the nhenomenon of activation that has
to be decided on. JI am rather unhappy about a too glib view of the permease
story, and I would stress, for example, the failtre of agide (which poiso
permease) to modify the kinetics with intact cells! "

If you are continuing with permease studies, I hops you find a way to
attack 1t at ifs fundamentals. Is the permease an actual pump, which facili-
tates the initial entry of the substrate, ot is it merely a mechanism for Ye
concentration by inhibiting diffusion out? I do not think Monod has faced
these fundamental questions satisfactorily.

Another anomaly: LacZ is supposed to be @erely a permease—deficient
mutant. But there is supposed to be the same permease for galactose. Still
Lac] ferments galactose as well as Lac*. However, this point sho be studied
quantitatively! If it would be any help we could also send you Lac* Gal5
(which lacks galactokingse) and also Lacj Gal3.

I think you would do well to revisit the states. But august is a terrible
time. We will probably be at ths International Congress of Microbiology at
Stockholm then. I'll be sorry if we should miss you.
Dr. Boris Rotman
Page 2 — January 17, 1958

I hope that circumstances never beat you down to be less than a perfection-
ist! Your friends admire you for it, am you are better appreciated (for good
and for bad) than perhaps you know.

We have no thymine~dependent K-12; every now and then we look for it.

The lab is a little smaller now — Tetsuo Iino is still here, and wll
finish his excelient Ph.D. thesis very soon. Bob Wright has gone back to
Australia, ani has a more or less satisfactory job at Melbourne. But first
he will spend 6 months with Ephrussi. Alan Richter is working on the specifi-
city of som Hfr's. The post-doctoral fellows last year - the Orakovs from
Denmark and Heumann from Germany have left. There are also two girls in the
lab, Jackie St. Clair and Ann Cook. ite are hoping that Cavalli will be here
a few months this spring.

"Medical Genetics" is still mov along, its staff is only Morton and
me so far. We are having a symposium (not at ay initiative, though it's
probably not o bad idea) in April. Plane are completed for another research
wing at the hospital. Until that is completed, my own lab stays here. For my-
self, I am still following up the penicillin work, have so far been unsuccessful
in transduction with DNA (contra Chargaff in Nature, Oct. 26, '57) which was a
sloppy job, and not at ali convincing. You will get some reprints and a ms,
very 3800n.

We ure anxious to keep in touch with you. All best wishes to yourself
and Rafuel.

-

“ Yours sincerely,

JL/ew