Department of Genetic8
Univereity of Wieconein
Madison 5, Wieconsin

February II, 1932

Dear Mr. Loutit:

  Your letter of the pth Jan. hae just been reoelwd. Aa the
letterhead showm, airmail service is not a little faster than the
>month eahedule for eurface mail.

   I tsm pleaesd to haar that you have undertaken reeombinatlon teats
with your mutate, even if they were unrewarding. I had a similar axperl-
ence with my mutants of Pseudomonae fluoaaecena. On a long ahance, It
might sometime be worthwhile combining the two eete of culturee. Meanwh9.10,
we are finally gal&q some lneighte into the determination of fertility
in E. coli. About 5 diet&et fertile &rains have now been isolated, in
addition to the original K-12. A parallel program with Salmonella hae given
a surprising result: there is a reoambinatlon meahanlem, but it ie not
uexual. Instead, filtrable particles mediate the "$ransduction" ef lndivi-
dual differential traits from one strain to another, something along the
lines of the pneuaoc2occue transformation. It is certainly worthwhile to
continue looting at othur baaterfa for their genetic properties.

   I would eympathize somewhat more aoutely with your Isolation lf' if
were not for the recrent reuruitznent of Profeeeor Catohealde to the Botany
Department of your Unlverafty. I do not know whether he has yet arrived;
pleaee give him my bust regards 5.f you ehould ohanoe to see him. Of oourae,
your hopes of some postdoctoral trawl should be encouraged nonetheless.

  Your inquiry about an aerietantehlp did not provide enough information
for me to give a full amtwer. In partioular, I would like to know just
when you planned to camplete your work, and hew long you wanted to r&by.
I auepeot the word "aaaiutantehip" has a different aonnotatlon in Amerioan
and in Antipodal usage, If you mean an appointment commensurate with your
profeaelonal tralnfng (lee. a postdootoral), I[ regret that I must tell you
that the University of Wfsoonein oould not subeidlze it. Stipends have been
prcnckded for graduate etudente, but ft would be dffficult to justify the&r
$pplloation to a poetdoctoral fellow whoee stay In the laboratory wae
motivated by hle own iarmedlate neede. I ho$e this doea not eound too Bewre;
I merely wleh to point out that you can and should look to other aourcea.

  I em not aminted with the ourrent etatue of the program, but have
you considered looking for a Fulbrlght Act Exohange Fellowehip. Same
of our people have gone to flew Zealand under theea auspioee, and the pro-
gram le reciprocal. Unfortunately, the paeeage of thi8 hurdle would expose
another: we are in an execrably arowded condition* There is, however, some
proepatct of relief for our spaoe neede by early next year, 80 thie diacue-
slon is not entirely pointlees. Xf' you would like to follow this up, pleaee
send me 8 more detailed expoeition of year plans, followed by the ueual
reccwds of abcadem3.o achievmant. Your application need not be rrubmitted
farmally until after preliminary dlecusefon.

Yours eincerelg,

Joshua Lederberg,
Associate Profeeeor of
    Qenetlcs