April 2l, 1931

Dear Nanuyt

To answer your question about "large bodies" and recombination in
E. coli- the thought has oaaurred to a good many people. Diener gave
a paper at Cold Spring Harbor in 1946 on the formation of large bodies
at the intersection of different etrains of roteus  This engendered
a good deal more o xcitalasnt than turned out & be w&ranted, at lead
as far aa recombination or sexuality evidence is concerned.

So far, we have found no indication of the participation of any
but ordinary bacterial aellr in recombination in K-12. However, Norton
Zinder is running into something in Salmonella typhimrium which
arguer mite differently, and which will probably put some aubstanoe
into the mooted questions of filtrable forms of bacteria. He hae some
evidenoe of the occurrenoe of reduced cells which are more reristant
to heat and antiseptics, and which remain dormant in apparently sterile
filtrates. These po8sibly originate from the disruption of slarge bodies".
They may aa t as "g~tee", or may initiate clones with the genetic
markers of the original bacteria, when stimulated to grow by the pre-
eence of other growing cells. Rhat ia, the filtrability situation in
Azotobac ter ?                                2

Siace this is bueinese stationery, I can`t lgery well give Alan' and
you our beat, nor our ootiserationa about the Okio Oath. What are your
latest plane for your vieit?

To uhange the subject again, the UW Press is fairly sure the reprint
oollection won't be out in BUe for coursee #is summer, but we hope to
have it out for the fall. I'm sorry about this, but there are the usual
shortages and delay%,

Sincere$y,

Joshua Lederberg