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:f /fsl/jsI/TX/20.avery.450120

20 Jan 1945 2100 Saturday

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I had the evening all to myself, and particularly the excruciating
pleasure of reading Avery `43 on the deoxyribose nucleic acid
responsible for type transformation in Pneumococcus. Terrific and
unlimited in its implications. Viruses are gene-type compounds,
but they cannot grow on synthetic or even dead media, and their
capacity for production is limited to reproduction. The TF of
Pneumococcus has every characteristic of a mutation. The obvious
questions still to be considered are the fraction of serum that is
involved in the reaction system; the induction of mutation in the TF
by use of x-ray and more controllable methods; the problems of its
antigenic specificity and relations to the specific polysaccharide
whose manufacture it regulates or initiates. Also the possibility of
activity of TF in vitro or in killed systems must be investigated,
although the presence of phosphatases and desoxyribonucleases present a
difficult problem. I can see real cause for excitement in this
stuff though.
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[marginal notes]:

Direct demonstration of the
multiplication of TF as well as
its polysaccharide
products !

or the synthetic enzyme for it
which may be TF itself.
Dual function - reproduction

     - production
Is the spatial specificity
different???

Demonstration of absence of
TF

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[ a near-contemporary reaction to Avery et al. 1944
from Joshua Lederberg diary.

This has some garbled thinking, as well as dates
(1943 for 1944), but there is no doubting the enthusiasm
generated by the publication. As recounted elsewhere
(P269) it set me on the path of looking for DNA transformation
in Neurospora, and eventually to my studies of genetic
recombination in E. coli (1946).