August 23, 1944

Dear Burr;

Reooived your letter about Elollander.

I of course sculcf weloome the

opportunity to take part in 8 'gene-oytopltsm' 8yrt.poslunr.
very muoh mope profound thm the other partiaipmts. Homver, lf &s you pojnt out
the genetioiets are down on Lindegren, the situation h&6 elemnts of c3onhar88amnt.
fm Do you Wow of the detailed Peap1on8 for thls Ittitiide,  1.8. besMe the more
obvioas ones P  In any aase I am writing a letter to ifollctndor glving him som of
the results we have obtained and telling hi.[& I muld bo dt.ficitoly interested in
part ioipatlng.

1.r ignoranoe Zan't be

      I have been up to my ears in experimnta tra-ing to zlem ~p the gene-
oytoplasm thing with adaptat ion t 0 melibiose fermrentat ion.
are aorofng through today ald tomorroJv. If they come through a6 expected #e sili
drop it and publish iihat we have.
aontinue a more detailed analysis of tho problem u8 ing melibiose as  the substrate.
'#e have two other strains whioh sat the same way towards maltose and laotose.
addition to euonomy these strains havo tho Avant .$e that one aan adapt to mdtose
fermentation -LrYrfhPrlairtPt but not to laOto6e whereas the other one oan
adapt to laatose but not to maltose.

The laart few baokorossea

It Pa finsnr3i;sAly i:ipossible even for Busoh to

                                  In

The story have on melibiose ha8 turned out to be very Interesting.

In the absenoe of the substrate during sporulation and oopulation there is slnple
mendelian inheritanae of a two gene oharmter, both dominant and eaoh situated on
one of the two available ohfomOaorne8. In about 20 baokoroesea to the double re-
oesaive we have always obtained a It1 ration. If hoaever the matlngs and sporulations
are aarrled out in the presenae of melibiose, after poking the oytoplasm full of
the adaptive enzyme by oontinued growth on the sugar, the 111 ratio blow6 up in
the segregants of the baokrosa.

      Carl and 1 mnt up to Columbia and spent 3 kveekend with Stadler talking
over the data.  b is aonvinoed about the oytoplasmio effeot even on our ori.?;inal
data. riinny thing, on the baais of the talk you and I had on your front poroh
I reanalysed the wnole thing anl wrote it down in seat dotal1 and oalculated the
expecttaney of various ratios and '.vat! 3onvinoed before I went to Stadler'e that ae
had a simple %ndelian inheritanoe. I plugqd that viewpoint durlng our oonver-
satiom but the oytoplasn had oausht thoir faoy. %en m got home I persuaded
Jerry to start the whole businese overagctfn Usin; hish OOnOentratiOns Of melibiose
in all the sporulation and sopiation media and then the story started to oom out.
3tadler ia, (,ore than willing to aodept ths *per for publiaatton In the 12-00.
Un fortunately WQ didn't got a oEIljnoo to talk .&oil: Jtadler's uorn material aad
Stadler made me promlee to oome UP &gain in ldto Septembor to give ma an earful
beoause he 'like8 the way I tnink' (sh&os of Stalkur'a 401 1). Anyhou ocrning

from Staler it sure made me fael good because I oonslder him ow of aloarest thinkers

in biology that we ham aa so I oan't help boasting to you a little about  it.

I am finished Jvith bat. teaohing for the next 6 Woekt3 and ivith Bronfenn-

brenner's temporary blessing 1 am oparx?ing full time on the hill.  The quoation
the looale of mg researoh in the fall has not oome IL to a bad altho he haa ex-
pressed his deoided preferenoe for the med shhool. I am lotting that Sleeping
'le until I am surer 8P uhat will hdppen next year. Gonoernins this here is so?

I think I told you that Andarson lnentioned tome during our

a

'ng intereetiag.

desultory oonversat ions that om of trte big obstaoles to the projeotad arrarqplruent
mi.:ht vary ??ell tnm out to bo :!ood8on,  ':vho dislikes physiologists and won't have
muoh if anything to do .rith the.a'e  '.7ell yesterday thie botanioal mountain anuounoed
that he id3 cornin;; 0v0r to sae thu phjrslolosiodl Loharmed (no direot oo!nprison
intenriod). 'BoOdaon apparently 1s interested in usiac?; cartek3im matl.,Ms in studying;
varhtion in leaf :awphoiogy and :rants BOLW +)(!inter 071 how to promed. Fie is oorning
over .this azternaon to taik it over, Thi3 may be something in the nature of a test,
I don't kxiohv b ~1111 tell you more artout sftorwards,

after 15 oonseoutive days of temperature% above the thermal deathpoints

of all but the most degmerata of livin? org;mism t% weather has turned mild
(between 85 aad 90), Our damon weather ~cm, uersisted in issuins 'oontinued :arm1
bulletins up to the 14th day Nhen hEa finally broke down and oalled it hot. The
Spiogemana Jveathetad the weather by stlaking cloae to mar remnrkable apartment.
:iillard is developing a de~ilit~h SQ~SB of tnunor,
time oarefully observing hie poor parents and hilariously inltating anything that
aems funny to him. J~nd the dmndeat thin@ appeal to his hmore :e have to bo
partiauiarly oarrtful in our pronunoiatlan srd  if ln our reading to hin we make
a slip or substitub a word he slaps file thi3h and laughs and rewats the @istake
using OUT intonation eurl this osn (30 on and on*

% sipnds a good deal of hie

&~ll I better bylng this to a 0108ee

I am planning to go to Mlnnemota

the seoond -ne& in September. Vlesoher through John askert ae to try to cane up
then as hs sould like to see me ard would not be in tom after the eeoond iveeke
I an not planning tr~ to :levoland crfter all.

Everything IS wing rmoothlg atormd the departmnte Viotor 18 aorkiw

pretty hard at ths inaubator ooura%) and t-y are getting a lot out of lte
tells rn that they are seriouely thinking of making this into a permanent arrange-
ment to ba given in the JunlOr year of the premed work. Anderson has Left after
being laid up with boilas very a&wardly situated, Stalker aubertituted for the
laat two -netla lbluturtw.
as instruator In YJilller's departmmt. ;f2s leave8 in a few weeka for Baltiraore,

Jaoobsen

You no doubt have already heard of Roy's new job

Regards to everybody

If you run aar088 Harriet tam her aside and explain oarsfully t-t a craok In 8n
agpa plate does not have norphologioe~ siqnifioclnoe  for the identifioatloa of the
organlsm growing In ite