DOCSLIB.ORG

Esther M. Lederberg Papers SC0874

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Esther M. Lederberg Papers SC0874 http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt829040sn Online items available Guide to the Esther M. Lederberg papers SC0874 Daniel Hartwig & Jenny Johnson Department of Special Collections and University Archives July 2018 Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford 94305-6064 [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Note This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0. Guide to the Esther M. Lederberg SC0874 1 papers SC0874 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Title: Esther M. Lederberg papers creator: Lederberg, Esther M. Identifier/Call Number: SC0874 Physical Description: 31 Linear Feet Date (inclusive): 1906-2016 Date (bulk): bulk Abstract: Collection includes class notes and lab notebooks from her education at Hunter College, 1939-42, Stanford University, 1944-46, and the University of Wisconsin, 1948-50; notes and lab notebooks from subsequent research, primarily with plasmids, 1950 on; records from the Plasmid Reference Center; correspondence; articles and reprints; photographs both professional and personal; family documents; and other materials. Information about Access This collection is open for research. Ownership & Copyright All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes. Cite As Esther M. Lederberg papers (SC0874). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Biographical/Historical Sketch Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg, PhD, professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, earned her AB at Hunter College in 1942. She then came to Stanford to study genetics, earning her MA in 1946. She earned her PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1950. Among her achievements was the discovery of lambda phage, a virus that infects E. coli bacteria. Esther and Joshua Lederberg both joined the Stanford medical school faculty in 1959; they were divorced in 1966. In addition to her teaching duties, she directed the Plasmid Reference Center at Stanford medical school from 1976 to 1986. She was also the American Cancer Society Senior Dernham Fellow from 1968 to 1970. She died in 2006. Description of the Collection Collection includes class notes and lab notebooks from her education at Hunter College, 1939-42, Stanford University, 1944-46, and the University of Wisconsin, 1948-50; notes and lab notebooks from subsequent research, primarily with plasmids, 1950 on; records from the Plasmid Reference Center; correspondence; articles and reprints; photographs both professional and personal; family documents; and other materials. Subjects and Indexing Terms Microbiology. Plasmids -- Genetics. Laboratory notes. Notebooks. Lederberg, Esther M. Lederberg, Esther M. Stanford University. School of Medicine. Faculty Original accession Accession ARCH-2007-158 box 1, folder 1 Botanical notes and drawings, Hunter College 1939 Dec box 1, folder 2 Botanical drawings 1939 Guide to the Esther M. Lederberg SC0874 2 papers SC0874 Original accession Accession ARCH-2007-158 Notebooks box 1, folder 3 Invertebrate zoology I and II, Drs. Elliott and McKinnsey, drawings, 1940 box 1, folder 4 Invertebrate zoology I and II, Drs. Elliott and McKinnsey, notes part 1, 1940 box 1, folder 5 Invertebrate zoology I and II, Drs. Elliott and McKinnsey, notes part 2 box 1, folder 6 Mycology notebook, Hunter College, Spring 1941 box 2, folder 1 Botanical drawings, observed at New York Botanical Gardens, Feb. 1942 box 2, folder 2 Botanical drawings, New York Botanical Gardens Museum, March 1942 box 2, folder 4 Neurospora [genetics] notebook, Stanford, 1944 box 2, folder 5 Biology 107, Dr. G. W. Beadle, Stanford 1944 box 2, folder 6 Biology 250, Dr. G. W. Beadle, Stanford 1945-46 box 2, folder 7 Anatomy 141, Dr. C. Danforth, Stanford 1945 box 2, folder 10 Physiology reading [1945] box 2, folder 11 Microbiology I, Stanford, 1945 box 2, folder 12 Microbiology II, Stanford, 1945 box 2, folder 13 Comparative and experimental marine biology, Dr. R. Watterson, Hopkins Marine Station, summer 1945 box 3, folder 1 Physiology of bacteria, F. W. Wilson, U. of Wisconsin, 1948 (1 of 2) box 3, folder 2 Physiology of bacteria, F. W. Wilson, U. of Wisconsin, 1948 (2 of 2) box 3, folder 3 Genetic Control of Mutability notes, 2/1948-6/1949: pp. 1-60 box 3, folder 4 Genetic Control of Mutability notes, 2/1948-6/1949: pp. 61-150 box 3, folder 5 Genetic Control of Mutability notes, 2/1948-6/1949: pp. 151-224 box 3, folder 6 Genetic Control of Mutability notes, 2/1948-6/1949: pp. 225-300 box 3, folder 7 Genetic Control of Mutability notes, 2/1948-6/1949: pp. 301-399 box 3, folder 8 Genetic Control of Mutability notes, 2/1948-6/1949: pp. 400-499 box 4 Four botanical specimens collected in New York and New Jersey, 1941 Books box 5 E. Z. Lederberg, Genetic Control of Mutability in the Bacterium Escherichia Coli. Ph.D. dissertatation, University of Wisconsin, 1950. box 5 Plasmids; Medical and Theoretical Aspects; Third International Symposium on Antibiotic Resistance, 1976 [Lederberg article p. 389] box 5 Horace Freeland Judson, The Eighth Day of Creation [Lederberg annotations p. 377 and 386] box 5 8th International Conference on Bacilli. Program. Sponsored by Genencor International, Inc. July 8-12, 1995 Stanford, California. Notebooks box 1, folder 7 Bryophytes and Pteridophytes, lab notebook, Hunter College, Jan. 1942 box 2, folder 14 Evolution notebook, Stanford, 1946 box 6, folder 1 University of Wisconsin-Madison lab notebook 1, Sept. 1950-Jan. 1952 (1 of 3) box 6, folder 2 UWM lab notebook 1, Sept. 1950-Jan. 1952 (2 of 3) box 6, folder 3 UWM lab notebook 1, Sept. 1950-Jan. 1952 (3 of 3) box 6, folder 4 UWM lab notebook 2, Oct. 1956-July 1957 (1 of 2) box 6, folder 5 UWM lab notebook 2, Oct. 1956-July 1957 (2 of 2) box 6, folder 6 Lab notebook (S1) 1964 box 7, folder 2 Lab notebook (S4) Jan.4 - April 4, 1966 box 7, folder 3 Lab notebook (S5) 1962-63, 1965, 1967 box 7, folder 4 Lab notebook (S5) – folder 1 labeled "NSF Proposal" box 7, folder 5 Lab notebook (S5) – folder 2 labeled "MS" box 7, folder 6 Lab notebook (S6) 1966-71 box 7, folder 7 Lab notebook (S7) 1973 (1 of 2) box 7, folder 8 Lab notebook (S7) 1973 (2 of 2) box 7, folder 9 Notebook (S8) "Molecular Properties of an F-Lac+-Tetracycline-Resistant Plasmid in E. coli and Salmonella typhimurium" drafts and background material. [Submitted on 4/20/73 to XIII International Congress of Genetics; presented in Berkeley Aug. 20-29, 1973] box 8, folder 1 Lab notebook (S9), Jan. 30-May 31, 1973 box 8, folder 2 Lab notebook (S10), March 25-July 24, 1974 box 8, folder 3 Lab notebook (S11) 1973-74 (1 of 2) Guide to the Esther M. Lederberg SC0874 3 papers SC0874 Original accession Accession ARCH-2007-158 Notebooks box 8, folder 4 Lab notebook (S11) 1973-74 (2 of 2) box 8, folder 5 Lab notebook (S12) June 23-Oct. 4, 1974 (1 of 2) box 8, folder 6 Lab notebook (S12) June 23-Oct. 4, 1974 (2 of 2) box 8, folder 7 Lab notebook (S13) Oct. 11-Dec. 4, 1974 box 8, folder 8 Lab notebook (S14) 1973-75 box 9, folder 1 Lab notebook (S15) Plasmid stock descriptions, 1973, 1974, 1975 and Index of Experiments 1974-75 box 9, folder 2 Lab notebook (S16A) 1975 box 9, folder 3 Lab notebook (S16B) 1975 (1 of 2) box 9, folder 4 Lab notebook (S16B) 1975 (2 of 2) box 9, folder 5 Lab notebook (S17) Nov. 4, 1975-April 28, 1976 box 9, folder 6 Lab notebook (S18) 1976 box 9, folder 7 Lab notebook [Plasmid Reference Center] (PRC1) Dec. 13, 1976-Dec. 12, 1977 box 9, folder 8 Lab notebook (PRC 2) March 22-Sept. 15, 1977 box 10, folder 1 Lab notebook (PRC4) Nov. 3, 1976-Feb. 3, 1978 box 10, folder 2 Lab notebook (PRC5) – Salmonella stock lists, SW Stab Collection list as of 7/76, E. coli linkage map dated 5/70, letter from EML to Bruce Holloway, 7/11/78 box 10, folder 3 Lab notebook [Plasmid Resource Center] (PRC6) – Kevin Reynolds worksheets, Sept. 16, 1971-July 28, 1978 box 10, folder 6 Lab notebook (PRC8) 1978-79 box 10, folder 4 Plasmid Resource Center correspondence (notebook PRC7) [this folder includes paperwork in support of a grant request to the NIH 4/29/76] Feb. 24, 1975-Jan. 23, 1979 (1 of 2) box 10, folder 5 Plasmid Resource Center correspondence (notebook PRC7) Feb. 24, 1975-Jan. 23, 1979 (2 of 2) box 10, folder 7 Lab notebook: Tf54 – Tf77 (PRC9) 1979 box 11, folder 1 Lab notebook (PRC 10) Feb. 2-June 30, 1979 (1 of 2) box 11, folder 2 Lab notebook (PRC 10) Feb. 2-June 30, 1979 (2 of 2) box 11, folder 3 Lab notebook (PRC 11) May 11-Nov. 24, 1979 (1 of 2) box 11, folder 4 Lab notebook (PRC 11) May 11-Nov. 24, 1979 (2 of 2) box 11, folder 5 Lab notebook (PRC 12) Oct.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Viewpoint of Aspects of a History of Genetics: an Autobiography
    12. The Postgraduate Medical School,London University. The Head of the Bacteriology Department at the PGMS(later the Royal PGMS) was Professor Lord(Trevor) Stamp who did'nt seem to bother what research I did so long as I did something. My closest colleague was Dr.Denny Mitchison(Lecturer),one of the three biologist sons of authoress Naomi Mitchison and nephew of J.B.S.Haldane,whose main interest was typing tubercle bacilli under MRC!auspices. In addition there were at least two non-tenured medical graduates on the staff. My only departmental responsibilities were to take my turn at clinical bacteriology which amounted to the mornings of one week in every three or four,and to share in teaching the bacteriology course for the Diploma in Clinical Pathology which occupied me for not more than a few weeks in the year. There was,in fact,a positive obligation to spend at least half one's time at research. I decided to return to the mechanism of somatic phase variation in S.enteritidis,but had begun to realise the potentiafities of genetic analysis inherent in the recent discovery by Lederberg and Tatum(1946) of conjugation in Escherichia coli ,and wondered if Salmonella also could conjugate. But it was clear that I should first become acquainted with the phenomenon in --E.coli. Towards the end of 1950 I went on a bacterial chemistry course at Cambridge,organized by Prof.E.H.Gale,and there met Luca Cavalli(later Cavalli-Sforza) who had worked with Joshua Lederberg on conjugation at Wisconsin and,being mainly interested in population genetics,was currently a visitor in Prof.R.A.Fisher's Department of Mathematics.
    [Show full text]
  • Phage Integration and Chromosome Structure. a Personal History
    ANRV329-GE41-01 ARI 2 November 2007 12:22 by Annual Reviews on 12/13/07. For personal use only. Annu. Rev. Genet. 2007.41:1-11. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org ANRV329-GE41-01 ARI 2 November 2007 12:22 Phage Integration and Chromosome Structure. A Personal History Allan Campbell Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-5020; email: [email protected] Annu. Rev. Genet. 2007. 41:1–11 Key Words First published online as a Review in Advance on lysogeny, transduction, conditional lethals, deletion mapping April 27, 2007 Abstract by Annual Reviews on 12/13/07. For personal use only. The Annual Review of Genetics is online at http://genet.annualreviews.org In 1962, I proposed a model for integration of λ prophage into the This article’s doi: bacterial chromosome. The model postulated two steps (i ) circular- 10.1146/annurev.genet.41.110306.130240 ization of the linear DNA molecule that had been injected into the Annu. Rev. Genet. 2007.41:1-11. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org Copyright c 2007 by Annual Reviews. cell from the phage particle; (ii ) reciprocal recombination between All rights reserved phage and bacterial DNA at specific sites on both partners. This 0066-4197/07/1201-0001$20.00 resulted in a cyclic permutation of gene order going from phage to prophage. This contrasted with integration models current at the time, which postulated that the prophage was not inserted into the continuity of the chromosome but rather laterally attached or synapsed with it. This chapter summarizes some of the steps leading up to the model including especially the genetic characterization of specialized transducing phages (λgal ) by recombinational rescue of conditionally lethal mutations.
    [Show full text]
  • The Eighth Day of Creation”: Looking Back Across 40 Years to the Birth of Molecular Biology and the Roots of Modern Cell Biology
    “The Eighth Day of Creation”: looking back across 40 years to the birth of molecular biology and the roots of modern cell biology Mark Peifer1 1 Department of Biology and Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#3280, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280, USA * To whom correspondence should be addressed Email: [email protected] Phone: (919) 962-2272 1 Forty years ago, Horace Judson’s “The Eight Day of Creation” was published, a book vividly recounting the foundations of modern biology, the molecular biology revolution. This book inspired many in my generation. The anniversary provides a chance for a new generation to take a look back, to see how science has changed and hasn’t changed. Many central players in the book, including Sydney Brenner, Seymour Benzer and Francois Jacob, would go on to be among the founders of modern cell, developmental, and neurobiology. These players come alive via their own words, as complex individuals, both heroes and anti-heroes. The technologies and experimental approaches they pioneered, ranging from cell fractionation to immunoprecipitation to structural biology, and the multidisciplinary approaches they took continue to power and inspire our work today. In the process, Judson brings out of the shadows the central roles played by women in many of the era’s discoveries. He provides us with a vision of how science and scientists have changed, of how many things about our endeavor never change, and how some new ideas are perhaps not as new as we’d like to think. 2 In 1979 Horace Judson completed a ten-year project about cell and molecular biology’s foundations, unveiling “The Eighth Day of Creation”, a book I view as one of the most masterful evocations of a scientific revolution (Judson, 1979).
    [Show full text]
  • 6 Women Scientists Who Were Snubbed Due to Sexism Despite Enormous Progress in Recent Decades, Women Still Have to Deal with Biases Against Them in the Sciences
    6 Women Scientists Who Were Snubbed Due to Sexism Despite enormous progress in recent decades, women still have to deal with biases against them in the sciences. BY JANE J. LEE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PUBLISHED MAY 19, 2013 In April, National Geographic News published a story about the letter in which scientist Francis Crick described DNA to his 12-year-old son. In 1962, Crick was awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, along with fellow scientists James Watson and Maurice Wilkins. Several people posted comments about our story that noted one name was missing from the Nobel roster: Rosalind Franklin, a British biophysicist who also studied DNA. Her data were critical to Crick and Watson's work. But it turns out that Franklin would not have been eligible for the prize—she had passed away four years before Watson, Crick, and Wilkins received the prize, and the Nobel is never awarded posthumously. But even if she had been alive, she may still have been overlooked. Like many women scientists, Franklin was robbed of recognition throughout her career (See her section below for details.) She was not the first woman to have endured indignities in the male- dominated world of science, but Franklin's case is especially egregious, said Ruth Lewin Sime, a retired chemistry professor at Sacramento City College who has written on women in science. Over the centuries, female researchers have had to work as "volunteer" faculty members, seen credit for significant discoveries they've made assigned to male colleagues, and been written out of textbooks.
    [Show full text]
  • The Roles of Moron Genes in the Escherichia Coli Enterobacteria Phage Phi-80
    THE ROLES OF MORON GENES IN THE ESCHERICHIA COLI ENTEROBACTERIA PHAGE PHI-80 Yury V. Ivanov A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2012 Committee: Ray A. Larsen, Advisor Craig L. Zirbel Graduate Faculty Representative Vipa Phuntumart Scott O. Rogers George S. Bullerjahn © 2012 Yury Ivanov All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Ray Larsen, Advisor The TonB system couples cytoplasmic membrane-derived proton motive force energy to drive ferric siderophore transport across the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. While much effort has focused on this process, how energy is harnessed to provide for transport of ligands remains unknown. Several bacterial viruses (“phage”) are known to require the TonB system to irreversibly adsorb (i.e., establish infection) in the model organism Escherichia coli. One such phage is φ80, a “cousin” of the model temperate phage λ. Determining how φ80 is using the TonB system for infection should provide novel insights to the mechanisms of TonB-dependent processes. It had long been known that recombination between λ and φ80 results in a λ-like phage for whom TonB is now required; and this recombination involved the λ J gene, which encodes the tail-spike protein required for irreversible adsorption of λ to E. coli. Thus, we suspected that a φ80 homologue of the λ J gene product was responsible for the TonB dependence of φ80. While φ80 has long served as a tool for assaying TonB activity, it has not received the scrutiny afforded λ.
    [Show full text]
  • Host Growth Rate Affects Bacteriophage Lambda Burst Size
    Host Growth Rate Affects Bacteriophage Lambda Burst Size Aida Abbasiazam Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Biology in the Graduate Division of Queens College of The City University of New York January 2020 Approved by: ________________________ (Sponsor) Date: _______________________________ 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgements Introduction................................................................................... 1 1.1 Bacteriophage Lambda Genome and Structure 1.2 Phage Life Cycle and Replication 1.3 Phage Burst Size Determination 1.4 Role of Nutrient Concentration on Phage Burst Size 1.5 The Effect of Growth Media on Host Cell and Concentration of Phages Objectives.......................................................................................14 Materials and Methods.................................................................15 Results............................................................................................ 19 Discussion ..................................................................................... 29 References...................................................................................... 33 2 ABSTRACT Life history traits such as growth rate and burst size involve the multiplication of phages in the host bacterial cell as a means of transmission and survival. As a consequence phage fitness depends on the physiological state of the host based on nutrient availability. In this study I tried to elucidate the effect of E. coli growth
    [Show full text]
  • An Interview with Werner Arber
    Interview The Inventiveness of Nature: An Interview with Werner Arber Jane Gitschier* Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics and Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America Image 1. Werner Arber stands outside the Biozentrum at the University of Basel, Switzerland. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004879.g001 I admit to having a soft spot for the years, restriction and modification was not spawned extremely useful technology. In bacterial phenomenon of host-specific only a remarkable story in itself, but also past issues, I have interviewed Hamilton modification and restriction. I vividly remember first learning about this mech- Citation: Gitschier J (2014) The Inventiveness of Nature: An Interview with Werner Arber. PLoS Genet 10(12): anism to stave off marauding DNA as a e1004879. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004879 beginning graduate student in the mid- Published December 18, 2014 1970s. Preceding the discovery of its Copyright: ß 2014 Jane Gitschier. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative modern-day defensive counterpart, Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced provided the original author and source are credited. short palindromic repeats) by about 50 * Email: [email protected] PLOS Genetics | www.plosgenetics.org 1 December 2014 | Volume 10 | Issue 12 | e1004879 Smith, who isolated the first type II Edouard Kellenberger, who ran the La- new preparation techniques. You could restriction enzyme, as well as Herb boratoire de Biophysique in the basement spread the lysate out on the film and see Boyer, whose production of recombinant of the Institute of Physics there.
    [Show full text]
  • Esther Lederberg, Pioneer in Genetics, Dies at 83
    Esther Lederberg, pioneer in genetics, dies at 83 Stanford Report, November 29, 2006 Esther Lederberg, pioneer in genetics, dies at 83 BY MITZI BAKER Courtesy of Matthew Simon • The Lederberg Plasmid Collection • Little Lambda, Who Made Thee? • Pioneer of microbial genetics: Joshua Lederberg Esther Lederberg gives a lecture in Japan in 1962. Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg, PhD, professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology, whose more than half-century of studies opened the door for some fundamental discoveries in microbial genetics, died Nov. 11 at Stanford Hospital of pneumonia and congestive heart failure. She was 83. A memorial service will be held at the Faculty Club on Nov. 30 from 4-6 p.m. "She was one of the great pioneers in bacterial genetics," said Stanley Falkow, PhD, the Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor in Cancer Research. "Experimentally and methodologically she was a genius in the lab." Lederberg is perhaps best known for her collaboration with her first husband, Joshua Lederberg, PhD, who in 1958 won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries on how bacteria mate. But her work was extremely noteworthy in its own right, and she was a trailblazer for women scientists at Stanford and at large. "She was a real legend," said Lucy Tompkins, MD, PhD, the Lucy Becker Professor in Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology. Among Lederberg's achievements was the discovery of lambda phage, a virus that infects E. coli bacteria. She published the first report of it in Microbial Genetics Bulletin in 1951, and it quickly became a significant and widely used tool for studying genetic recombination and gene regulation.
    [Show full text]
  • Joshua Lederberg's Legacy to Bacterial Genetics
    GENERAL ⎜ ARTICLE Joshua Lederberg’s Legacy to Bacterial Genetics R Jayaraman Joshua Lederberg (1925-2008) was an extraordinarily gifted person. Starting his professional career at the age of 17 as a dish washer in Francis Ryan’s laboratory in Columbia Uni- versity, he rose to be the President and later University Professor Emeritus at Rockefeller University, occcupying chairs of Genetics at Wisconsin and Stanford Universities. He R Jayaraman is an was only thirty three when he received the Nobel Prize, along Emeritus Professor of with George W Beadle and Edward L Tatum in 1958. He also Molecular Biology at the received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Medal of Science. His scientific work encompassed not only Kamaraj University, bacterial genetics but also astrobiology (exobiology, as he Madurai, where he taught called it) and artificial intelligence. He was part of the Stanford and carried out research in team which developed the artificial intelligence software the area of microbial genetics for three decades. program DENDRAL. With his passing away in February 2008, the last of the founding fathers of bacterial genetics is gone. It is an honour for me to write this small article in his memory. In this article, I will focus on just two of his outstand- ing contributions to bacterial genetics, namely, the spontane- ous, selection-independent origin of bacterial mutations and the discovery of genetic recombination and sexuality in Es- cherichia coli. Introduction The history of bacterial genetics can be divided into two eras: the pre-double helix and the post-double helix.
    [Show full text]
  • Natural Variation of Large Plasmids in Bacterial Populations
    NATURAL VARIATION OF LARGE PLASMIDS IN BACTERIAL POPULATIONS by LAURA E. WILLIAMS (Under the Direction of Anne O. Summers) ABSTRACT Plasmids encode an extraordinary range of adaptive functions, including antibiotic resistances, virulence factors and degradative enzymes. Plasmids also mediate horizontal gene transfer, which impacts evolution of bacterial chromosomes. Despite their important ecological and evolutionary roles, we lack a comprehensive picture of the variation and evolution of plasmids themselves. In this dissertation, I investigated the natural variation of large plasmids on two different scales: 1. individual plasmid sequences from Gram- negative and -positive bacteria and 2. total plasmid content of E. coli and Salmonella reference collections. For the sequence-based studies, I sequenced four large plasmids from E. coli, Staphylococcus and Corynebacterium. Whereas 98% of the E. coli plasmid was highly similar to other plasmid sequences, 40-60% of the three Gram-positive plasmids had no apparent similarity to known sequences. The E. coli plasmid’s backbone, which encodes “core” functions such as replication, was almost identical to that of a Salmonella enterica sv Typhimurium plasmid. Subsequent analysis identified this backbone in five other enterobacterial plasmids. All seven plasmids differed in accessory gene content, leading to variation in plasmid-encoded phenotypes. For the collection-based studies, I analyzed 228 E. coli and Salmonella strains from four reference collections. Plasmids, especially large plasmids, were abundant. Replicon typing identified two common families, IncF and IncI1, by the presence of characteristic backbone genes. At least 20% of strains with large plasmids in each collection were untypable, suggesting variation in plasmid backbones. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis showed high variation in large plasmid genomes.
    [Show full text]
  • Joshua Lederberg – a Remembrance
    c Indian Academy of Sciences SPECIAL FEATURE Joshua Lederberg – a remembrance ABHIJIT A. SARDESAI* and J. GOWRISHANKAR* Laboratory of Bacterial Genetics, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, ECIL Road, Nacharam, Hyderabad 500 076, India Joshua Lederberg, an iconic figure in microbiology, passed It was the subsequent work of William Hayes and of away on 2 February 2008 at the age of 83. Many obituar- Lederberg which led to delineation of the underlying mech- ies have since appeared describing his work in and outside anism, namely discovery of the fertility or sex factor (the F- of science (Balaram 2008; Blumberg 2008; Crow 2008a,b; plasmid), mediating conjugative gene transfer, and the word Oransky 2008; Sgaramella 2008). As a practising micro- conjugation gradually came to be applied to the phenomenon biologists, we take retrospective glimpses in this article at (Cavalli et al. 1953;Hayes 1953; reviewed in Firth et al. some of his research contributions that have profoundly in- 1996). It is now recognized that the gene transfer detected fluenced the development and growth of prokaryotic biology. by Lederberg and Tatum was tantamount to their winning For more personal accounts of his career, including specific the jackpot (in more ways than one, see below), since the examples of his legendary intellect, readers may refer to the bacterium E. coli K12 fortuitously chosen by them for their two articles cited above by James F. Crow, a close colleague work differs from the majority of other enterobacteria in that of Lederberg, and the one by Baruch S. Blumberg, a long it carries a natural mutation in the gene encoding an inhibitor time associate.
    [Show full text]
  • Juegative, Downloaded by Guest on September 26, 2021 VOL
    976 GENETICS: BARON, CAREY, AND SPILMAN hoc. N. A. S. 27 Libby, W. F., "Radioactive Strontium Fallout," these PROCEEDINGS, 42, 365-390 (1956). 28 Libby, W. F., "Current Research Findings on Radioactive Fallout," these PROCEEDINGS, 42, 945-962 (1956). 29 Libby, W. F., "Radioactive Fallout," these PROCEEDINGS, 43, 758-775 (1957). 30 Public Hearings on Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests, Testimony before the Special Com- mittee on Atomic Energy, Special Subcommittee on Radiation, Joint Committee on Atomic En- ergy, Special Subcommittee on Radiation, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, May 5-8, 1959. U.S. Government Printing Office (in press). 31 Daily Record of Fission Product Activity Collected by Air Filtration, Naval Research Labora- tory, Washington, D.C. GENETIC RECOMBINA TION BETWEEN ESCHERICHIA COLI AND SALMONELLA TYPHIMURIUM* BY L. S. BARON, W. F. CAREY, AND W. M. SPILMAN DIVISION OF IMMUNOLOGY, WALTER REED ARMY INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH, WASHINGTON, D.C. Communicated by Joshua Lederberg, May 12, 1959 Introduction.-The phenomenon of genetic recombination by sexual mating in bacteria, described by Tatum and Lederberg' has been investigated intensively by Lederberg et al.2 and many other workers. These classical studies were carried out almost entirely with the K-12 strain of Escherichia coli, although comparable re- sults were obtained with a small number of other strains of E. coli.1 4 In further studies, Cavalli5 found that the frequency of recombination could be greatly increased by using a highly fertile mutant of the K-12 strain. Additional
    [Show full text]