February 14, 1972

Dear Beets,

   It was good to get your letter written from Davis with all the
news and views of you and Piuriel.   Yess indeed, I have heard of
you's return to maize and, it seems, just where you left off.   Of
COUP e, you never really turned-off the corn plant.
lurk L                                 It was always
   g sonewhere--in the backyard, on the front lawn, or on any
other ,piece of soil that was handy!   I am delighted, too, with the
direction of your renewed studies.   There is good evidence now that
yotir efforts to correct ldiangelsdorf's tripartite hypothesis is
having an effect.  Unfortunately for so many of us, Paul Mangelsdorf
lived in a dream world and with total conviction of its reality.
I mean this quite literally,  and can document it with several
experiences I had with him.   One of these is responsible for my
involvement in tracing the origin3 of races of maize and for
considering the different genomes that huve contributed to t&em
(undoubtedly, various teosintes).  This involver?ent commenced witfjr
me being in "high dudgoon" but ended with me being in a st<.te of
excitement over newly discovered relationships and opportunities for
finding new ones.   I do wish, however, that your Gorrective
influence had set in earlier.  Anthropological textbooks and articles
recite !iangelsdorf's tripartite dream, rote Zor rote.   It has been
a powerful dream!

   From your letter I assume that you may not be aware of the
studies of Kate, Almiro Blumenschein and myself aimed at revealing
origins, migrations, introgreasions, introductions, etc. of m?lize
that has been distributed over the Americas.   The data consider
chromosome constitutions of indiuidual plRnts:.the locrltion of knobs,
their sizes (small, medium, lclrge or very large), the honozygous or
heterozygous st;ite at any one location, and any additional information
such as presence or absence of B-type chromosomes, Abnormal-10,
altered chrom%ea, differances in the nucleolus or;yCzers, etc.
Kate examined" maize from all p-:irts of Mexico and also maize whose
seed wns obtained from Bill Brown*&hut origi::ated in the U.LI.,
from Indian tribes in the Southwest, Central, :tnd IJorthern LJ.S. and
from his collections made in the South Gst.  Blumenschein examined
m:lize collected from Northern, Central, and Xasters South America.
Initiaily,  I had examined maize from destern South-limerica and sone
maize from i;lexico and Central America plus the 13l:~nds.   This was
followed by extensive examinations of maize derived from Central
iimerica and the Caribbean Islands by Longley and &to.   Their mode
of collecting data was less useful for our purposes thr:n the uore
tieWiled taode l;lter used by Blumenschvin and Kato.   Some teosintes
11~0 !;iere incl,,ded in these studies.   Thousrmds of I;l:Lnts hive been
examined and the results are amazi:lgly sitiofying.   They :rre now
compLete enough to be published.   I was in I:lexico City in Jsnustry


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to arrange with Kate and Blumenschein for their publication.
iclthough lJellhausen has sponsored these studies, he has only recently
understood their signifioance,  lie is now attempting to arrange with
CIBi%lYT for thi publications.   The study is worth a review article
in some journal having a general distribution.   It is unique and the
results and conclusions would interest the anthropoiogist.

   Now, about Kate.   He told me that he had not discussed his
work with you while you wers together this past November.  He did not
wish to talk about this work and hie uonclusions until he knew of my
response to his first dr.aft for publication.   It was good.
Kato is an exceptionally fine observer of maize and teosinte chronosorae:
He.,is fast and accurate.   In drawing conclusions from his maize
studies, he became aware of the necessity for obtaining more informatior
on the, chronosornss of teosintes derived from various geographic
10cat~0n3.   He has a number of sporocyte collections in the deep-freeze
waiting to be examined.   Also, he needs a Ph.D. and soon.   This will
be required to obtain a secure job,  either with 2IPiSYT or at the Agr.
Bohool.   Both dellhausen and I have contacted Galinat to inquire
if it would be possible for Kato to obtain a Ph.D. at the University of
PIas s . with Galinat a3 the advisee,   Galinat's loccrtion is not good
for this purpose but they do shzre a special interest in this one topic,
This is important for KZLto's fUtUre,   Galinat's knowledge of chromo-
somes is distressi!:gly limited but K.ato could supply the needed levers
at this juncture.

   I do not know how to answer your question on long tern relationshij
batween maize and teosinte without indicating the degrees of
relatLonship$ that may be exhibited.   'There is no Yes or No answer
for any one area.  Certainly, teosinte and maize in the Central Mesa,
in p,lrts of Guerrero and Oaxaca s!:zre many parts of their genomes
but not all of them.   In contrast,  the maize from Guatemala does not
share its genome with the teosinte from Guatemaia.   These strsnge
relationships that Kato has found are responsible for his present
interest in the teosintes.

   It would be like old times to sit and talk about our maize
Studies.  I wish we might do this as now :W hnTre much information
of mutual interest to exchange.
   Very best regards to you and Fluriel.

Sincerely,