COLD SPRING HARBOR SYMPOSIA ON QUANTITATIVE BIOLOGY VOLUME XII COLD SPRING HARBOR SYMPOSIA ON ~x.UANTITATIVE BIOLOGY Founded in 1933 by REGINALD G. HARRIS Director o] the Biological Laboratory 1924 to 1936 The Symposia were organized and managed by Dr. Harris until his death. Their continued use- fulness is a tribute to the soundness o] his vision. The Symposium volumes are published by the Long Island Biological Association as a part of the work of the Biological Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor, L.I., New York COLD SPRING HARBOR SYMPOSIA ON QUANTITATIVE BIOLOGY VOLUME XII Nucleic Acids and Nucleoproteins THE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY COLD SPRING HARBOR~ L.I., NEW YORK 1947 COPYRIGHT 1948 BY THE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY LONG ISLAND BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, INC. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or part, except by reviewers for the public pres% without written perm!~sion from the publisher. COMPOSED, PRINTED AND BOUND BY GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY, MENASHAp WISCONSIN, U.S.A. FORE WORD When Nucleic Acids and Nucleoproteins was were concluded with a paper by Schneider on nucleic chosen as the topic of this year's symposium, I was acids in normal and neoplastic tissues. aware that a similar topic had been discussed only Owing to unfortunate circumstances which the a year earlier at the meeting organized by the So- efforts of the Laboratory could not overcome, Belo- ciety for Experimental Biology held at Cambridge zersky and Serra were not able to attend the sym- University. Very few American scientists were able posium. Their papers are included in this volume, to attend the Cambridge meeting, however, so that however. an important segment of current research was not The publication of discussions in this volume is reported. This, together with the fact that research according to the procedure followed for the last two in this field is very active and significant new dis- symposia. Participants were requested to submit coveries had been arrived at since last summer, made manuscripts covering their questions, comments, or the selection of this topic for our symposium an statements if they felt these represented a signifi- appropriate one---particularly since it complements cant contribution. Only the material so received has the subjects of our 9th and 11th symposia (Genes been included in the volume. and Chromosomes and Heredity and Variation in Material presented by Errera and by Ris during Microorganisms) and helps to round out the series the discussions contained new experimental details, of meetings dealing with the mechanism of heredity. and their contributions are published here as sep- For greater ease of reference, the papers in this arate papers. volume are arranged alphabetically according to In the organization of the program for this sym- authors. On the program they were arranged in what posium I was helped by Drs. J. P. Greenstein, A. appeared at the time to be a logical sequence ac- HoUaender, M. McDonald, and A. Mirsky; I wish cording to subject matter. The first group of papers to express to them my sincere appreciation. The to be presented dealt with the chemical aspects of editing was done by Dr. Katherine Brehme Warren. the problem (Greenstein, Carter, and Chalkley; The symposium was held from June 11 to June Schmidt, Cubiles, and Thannhauser; Gulland; 20, 1947. The meetings were attended by about 150 Michaelis). These were followed by Spiegelman and persons. It is my pleasure to acknowledge here a Kamen's paper on the role of nucleoproteins in grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which enabled enzyme formation, and by Taylor, Greenstein, and us to bring scientists from abroad to our meetings. Hollaender's paper on the effect of X-rays on It was with deep regret that we learned of the nucleic acid. Certain aspects of the behavior of death in October of our colleague, John Masson nucleic acids in living cells and tissues were elab- Gulland. He came to us from England to give one of orated in three papers given by Davidson, Thorell, the most significant papers of the Symposium, and and Brachet. This year's program placed consider- his warm personality, as well as the excellence of his able emphasis on the conditions existing in micro- work, made many friends for him in America. Since organisms and on work using microorganisms as his death occurred so soon after our meeting, which experimental material; six papers dealt with research was one of the last that he attended, I feel that it is involving viruses and bacteria (Knight, Hyden, appropriate that we reproduce here a photograph of Cohen, Chargaff, Boivin, and Witkin). Another im- Dr. Gulland and a brief biographical statement pre- portant part of the program was devoted to papers pared by one of his colleagues, and that we dedicate dealing with the nucleus and with chromosomes. this volume to one whose life work and interest were This group included the contributions of Stedman concerned with problems that were discussed at the and Stedman; Mirsky; Pollister and Ris; Schultz; Symposium. and Mazia, Hayashi, and Yudowitch. The sessions M. DEMEREC Iv] JOHN MASSON GULLAND F.R.S., M.A. (Oxon.), I~.D. (St. Andrews), D.Sc. (Edin.) JOHN MASSON GULLAND was born in 1898 in Edinburgh, Scotland, son of Professor G. L. Gulland of Edinburgh University. He went to school and University in Edinburgh, but his student days were inter- rupted by the first World War, during which he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers from 1917 to 1919. He took his B.Sc. degree in 1921 and later did research work in St. Andrews and Manchester. In 1924 he went to Oxford, where he remained until 1931 when he was appointed Reader in Biochemistry in the Univer- sity of London at the Lister Institute. Five years later he was ap- pointed Sir Jesse Boote Professor of Chemistry in University College, Nottingham. During the second World War he acted as Assistant Director, Chemical Research and Development, Ministry of Supply, from 1943 to 1944; and he had just taken over a new post as Director of Research to the Institute of Brewing when he was killed in a railway accident on 26th October, 1947. He is survived by a widow and two daughters. Gulland's interests ranged over a wide field of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and his early work dealt with alkaloids. Durin~ his stay at the Lister Institute he was engaged on the difficult problem of the pituitary hormones. But it is from his work on the nucleic acids that he will be chiefly remembered. For nearly 20 years he had been engaged in investigating the structure of the nucleic acids and of their constituent nucleofides, and much of our present-day knowl- edge of the chemical constitution of these substances has come from Gulland's laboratory. Gulland was one of the most courteous and charming of men. The invitation to attend the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on nucleic acids gave him great pleasure, and during his visit to the United States he made many friends who have learned with sorrow of the tragedy which has withdrawn from the field of nucleic acid chemistry one of its foremost investigators. J. N. DAVIDSON Photograph by J. Russell and Sons, London, by courtesy o] the Royal Society LIST OF THOSE ATTENDING OR PARTICIPATING IN THE SYMPOSIUM .~kBELSON,P. H., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C. .~AMS, MARKH., New York University College of Medicine, New York ALLEN, MARYBELLE, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, St. Louis, Missouri ANDERSON,T. F., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ARvocnsw, RACHEl,Biological Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York BAKER,ArJCE S., Columbia University, New York BAm~ATT,R. W., Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut BEALE, G. H., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Cold Spring Harbor, New York BELOZE~SKY, A. N., Botanical Institute of Moscow State University, U.S.S.R. BENDICH, AARON,Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, New York BERMnN, RUTH, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania BorvIN, ANDRe, Facult6 de M6decine de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France BONNER, DAVID, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut BRACHET,JEAN, University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium BROWN, GEORGEB., Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, New York BRuES, AVSTm M., Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago, Illinois BRYSON, VERNON,Biological Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York BUCK, JOHN B., National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland BUSCH~:E,WILLIAM H., Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland BUSH, MILTONT., Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee CA~TER, C. E., National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland CASPARI,ERNST, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut CHALKLEY,H. W., National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland C~ARCAFF,E., Columbia University, New York COHEN, SEYMOtmS., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania COMMONER,BA~RY, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri COONFIELn, B. R., Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York CRIPPEN, MARION,Carnegie Institution of Washington, Cold Spring Harbor, New York CRousE, HELEN V., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania CRow, JAMESF., Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire CROWELL,JANE E., Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland CUBILES, RICAI~o, Tufts Medical College, Boston, Massachusetts DAXaDSON,1. N., St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London, England DEITCI-r,ARLINE D., Columbia University, New York DEME~EC, M., Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Biological Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York DISCHE, ZACHARL~S,Columbia