Name: Barbara McClintock Born: Hartford, Connecticut, June 16, 1902 Secondary Education: Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn, N-Y. Earned Degrees: B.S., Cornell University, 1~1 .A . , II 11 g; Ph.D., +' II 1927 Honorary Doctor of Science: University of Rochester, 1947 Western College, 1949 Smith College, 1957 University of Missouri, 1968 Awards: Achievement Award, Association of University Women, 1947 Merit Award, Kimber Medal, Botanical Society of America, 1957 National Academy of Sciences, 1967 National Medal of Science, 1970 Positions Held: Instructor in Botany, Cornell University, 1927-1931 Fellow, National Research Council, 19X-1933 Fellow, Guggenheim Foundation, 1933-1934 Research Associate, Cornell University, 1934-1936 Assistant Professor, University of Mssouri, 1936-1941 Staff Member, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1941-1967 Distinguished Service Member, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1967 to present, Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large, Cornell University, 1965 to present. Professional Societies: AAAS (Fellow) American Academy of Arts and Sciences American Philosophical Society American Society of Naturalists Botanical Society of America Genetics Society of America (Vice-President, 1939; President, 1945) National Academy of Sciences Sigma Xi Wnen Ear?.mra MSlintock bepn her grmiuate work at CornaIl in the tiddle 1920's the foundatiooz+ of tize Genetics had been firnl;l laid but c0qmzativcl.y little cytologicel work had been done. Maize was considered to be so poorly suited for cytolo3ical study that the head of a fezous pcer.etics laboratory forsook r;raize for Clcotiana in the nistaken belief that the latter was mme favorable zatcriai for genetic research. NcClintock mrived in the scientific arena at a propitious tize. !?he caxn5ne smar techr&ue, which p;reatly facilitated q-tolo&xG. studies, had Just been developed by Zkllin,a. She qxickly fomd t'sat car&ne miesrs of zai.ze sporoeyteq et nidzrqhase of nelosls yielded prepmations of extraorilinsx-y beauty and claritjr . EM.ze could heretofore irTosoible publAshed a series of foremost investigator now be used for detailed qto3erietic mdlyses of a kind with eiy organisn ezd Xcc'lintock in the succeeding years rsmrkeble papers Wdch clearly establiobed'her as tke in cytogenetics. Eer first mJor coutributioa was the deslonstration that the chrs~osozes vera istividzally recognizable by their relative lengths e.M arm ratios, distinctive chroxonere patterns, md deep- staining knobs in characteristic positiom. This vas folloxd by such si&ficant studies as the z?sI.ysFs of translocation heterozygotes, the correlation of cytolo@2l e27.3 ~eneticel crossing over, the assi,grment of linkqe 3rouFs to specific chrozoscmes, the physical location of gene loci by deficiencies, the fomatfon of Ucentric brrdges ~1.32 acentric fIr2gxents as a result of crossing over in k~vc:rz~loa heLerozygo%es, t;:e soxatic md neiotic behavior of unstable ring chrozioso2es, the oec-uzence of non?mzolo~ou3 pairing, the structure amI fur&ion of the nucrLeo2er ol*ljaniz.in~ regicn, the production of viable ho;ilozygous deficiencies that einulated gene mtation rmd fomed a pseudoeUelfc series, and the genetic ar,d cytolo&xl consequences of the bridge-breakwOe-fusion cycle. Ber current otwlies on the evolutiozxq history of race3 of cake as disclosed by the nuzher ad location of specific chrommrme kxzobs have been conducted tith typical precision and elegance. .kilong :~cClintock's outstanding contributions is her analysis of the co&r01 of gene action in mize ad the discovery of the two-unit interacting system. !This concept was the precursor of the re,giLator-operon theory of gene regulation that won for its pxwmlga- tom, Jacob and Xomd, the iiobel Prize in 1965. Zer findiq th& the trans- position of controlling elements frcn one chrcxosoml. location to mother was accoqxmied by a change in gene action afforded a new and revolutionary insight into chronosose structure and genie ezqrension. genetics would not occur its present high estate vere it not for her magrrificent and pioneering contributions. lier cozmzmate skill. ad yersatillty as a cytologist are perhaps best evideoced by the fact that in the few weeks she devoted to Xeurospora there resulted what remins nore than tvcx~ty yeam later as the definitive paper on the neiotic chrozmso3es of this fungus. So difficult cytologicalljj is Ueurospora that Bat even the correct chrozosoxe nmber was kzm-m prior to her studies. An indication of the si&ficance of ker contributions to the presezlt fabric of genetic theory oay be had fronthe number of t&es her discoveries are spec5ficaXy roentioned in several recent general texts. As a rule, in such books only t'ne pioneering, the truly &nificant and ilAminating discoveries -. the xxllestoges - are cited. The record shovs that her work is discussed 15 t&es in Ctrickberger, 26 tines in Swanson, 10 tiEes in Xerskovitz, 8 tties in Srb, Oven szd Zdgar, and 18 tiaes in Lewis end John. One of the rezmrkable things about Barbara KcClfntock's surpaaaingly bcautif'ul investigations is that they cme solely from her own labors. Withcut technIcal. help of any kind she has by viztue of her boundless energy-, her -3- complete devotion to science, her originality and Ln~enuitjr, and her quick and high intelA.~ence xmd9 a serieo of sipificaxt discoveries unparalleled in the history o> cytogenetics. A skilLed eqez+zentalist, a zxazter at interpreting cytological detail, a brilliant theoretician; she has had an Jllvzinating ad pervasive role in the developznt of cytolocg and genetics. Biography of Barbara XcClintock America's most distinguished cybogeneticist; Barbara XcClfntock, was born $n ?Sartford, Connecticut on June 16, 1902. After attending high school in Kiev York City, she enrolled at Cornell 'Jniversity in 1919 and from this institution received the B. S. degree in 1923, the 13. A. in 1925, and the Ph. D. in 1927. She served as's grzAuate assistwt in the Department of E&any from 1924-27 and in lW7, following ccql&ion of her graduate studies, was appointed an . Instructor, a post she held until1931. Dr. XcClintock was awarded a. Xatfonal Research Council fellowship in 1931 and spent two years as a fellow at the California Institute of Technolo~. In 1933 she received a Gwenheim Fellowship which enabled her to spend a year abroad at Freiburg. She returnedtothe _ States and to the Department of Plant Breeding at Cornell in 193j.i. She left Cornell in 1936 to accept a~ Assistmt Professorship in the Department of i3otarv at the University of Mssouri. In 1941 she joined the staff of the Carnegie Institution of Uzshin&on, and began a ha?pJ and fruitful association vhich has continued to the present t&e. She is currently a Staff Hember of the Carnegie's . Gecetics Research Ur?it at Cold Spring riarSor, Long Island, Xe-+? York. McClintock was appointed An~dresr D. Knite professor-a,- + large at Cornell in 1.965, a fittins recognition tit her Z&m Xater of the grea t distinction she has achieved as a scientist and scholar. Barbara MXintock was awarded the honorw Doctor of Science dee;ree by the University of Rochester in 1947, by Western College in 1949, and by Smith College ih 1958. She was the recipient in 1947 of the Achievement Award of the American Association of University 'r&en, was given the Award of Kerit 'by the Botanical Society of kerica in 1957 and most recently (1967) was selected by the Iiational Academy of Sciences for the Umber Award in Genetics. McCllntock ha been for gany years a member of tSe ;Natlonal Acad- . of Sciences and of the Azzerican Philosophical Society; as well aa a n?eaber of mtz.ero*a professional 0r~anizirtios-m. She as elected Vice President of the Genetics Society of America in 1939 and President in 1945.' As Spcial Coxaltant to the flockefeller Foumbtion s?ze has in recent years been instzvzental in ukancizg the trainin of geneticists in several Latin Amrican Sountries. Sdected List of Publications of Barbara 1~cC~i~tock Beadle, I;. W. and B. XcClintock. Science 68: 433. 1928. A genie disturIx3nce of meiosis in Zea nay3. McClintocB , a. A cytological and gem&i 160-222. 1929. ceJ strtay of triploid xaize. Gmetfcs 14: McCUntock, a. Chromosome norpholo~ in %a mays. Science 69: 629. 1929. NdXintock, B. A metho. for zx&.ing eceto-casnin smear3 pemxment. Stain Te&nology 4: 53-56. 1929. l4&lialtock, 9. A cytuloGical der=onstration of the location of an interchange between tvo non-hcxxoloGous chromosomes of Zea nays 3?roc. Jat. Acad. .sci. 16: ?91-796. 1930. -. Creighton, H. B. amI B. XcClintock. A correlation of cytological and genetlcal crossing over in yroc . lIat. Acad. sci. 17: 492-497. 1931. XcClintoek, B. and R. E. Hill. The cytological identification of the chmzosme associated wit'u the ~-G-litir~e group in Zea rays. Genetics 16: 175-190. 1931. HcClintock, 5. The order of the genes C, 2 and t&in Zca m with reference to a cytoloy;ical&~ known point in the chrcmos~. ?roc. Iiat. Acad. sci. 17: 485-491. 1931. McClintock, B. Cytolo~ica3 olmermtion of deficinncies involvirq known genes, trans10ci3.ti0ns a-i3 en inversion in Zea ?q+ zussouri &I?. lkpt. Sta. Research &ill. 163: l-30. 1331. McClintock , B. fi correlation of rinp35qd chrrmo3cx~es with variczatiori in Zea nays. Proc. :iat. Acad. Sci. 18: 677-&l, 1932. MXintock, 3. 'L'he association of non-h q- ,~~ologous parts of chrozoscmes in the mid-propkse of ~~ziosis in Zea -. Zeitschrift fur Zellforsc::un-, und mikroskopiacte Anatoxie 19:x-237. 1333. MZiatock, B. The relation of a particular chromosoml elwnent to the dcveloy;nent of the nucleoli in Zea og* ZeitsckWt fbr ZeUforschuq und I~UzrosicopisCile Anatxxlie 21: 29L3M. 1934. Rhoades, ES. 31. and B. YcCUntock. The cytoCenetfcs of Icalze. Botanical heview 1: 292-325. 1935. l4ca.intocB, B. The $rod-mtion of xraize p4.az-k~ mosaic for ho=ozyC;osrs deficiencies: Sirnulatio~~ oi" the Xxx1 phenotme through loss of the a locus. Genetics 22: 200. 1'337, XcClintock, B. A rcetlxd for dctccting ptantial mtatiom of a specific chromosoul region. GenetJ,cs 23: 159. 1933. -2- b!cClintock , a. The production of homozygous deficient tissues with routwt characteristics by means of the aberrmt titotic behavior of r&-shaped chromos~3. Genetics 23: 315-376. 1932. UcClfntock, 3. !?he fusion of broken ends of sister half-chromatids folloving chromatid breakq3 at meiotic anaphases. Research ikill. 293: l-48. 1938. im%muri J&-p. Expt . sta. McCUntock , 3. The behavior in successive nuclear divisions of a chramsone broken at meiosis. Proc. Xat. Acad. Sci. 25: 405-416. 1939. McClintock, B. The stability of broken ends of chromosomes in Zea nays. Genetics 26: 234-262. 1941. McC~ntock, 3. The associations of mutants with hmozygous deficiencies in Zea may%. Genetica 26: 5k2-571. 1941. McClintock, 3. Spontaneous alter&Sons in chro~~osme size and fom in %a plays. Cold Spring Earbor omposia 6-t. Xol. 9: 72-80. 19K McClintock, B. Xaizc Genetics. Carne,=ie Institution of Washington Year Book 41: 181-S. 1942, McClintock, B. The fusion of braen en& of c!moxasanes folio-ging nuclear fusion. Ppoc. ?!&. Xcad. Sci. 28: 45d-463. 1342. XcClintocB, 3. Ibize Genetics. 43: CameSia Institution of Washington Year 3ook ?.27-135. 1344. 1G!cClintock, I(. The relatfion of hmozygous deficiencies to mutations and allelic serfes in mize. Genetics 23: 47&5C2. 1944. McClintock, 3.. fleuros~ora. I. Prclir~inrtry observations of the chro~osozes of Xeurospor- crassa. AIL J. 3otmy 32: 671-673. 1945. f4cClint ock , 3. Cytogenetic studies of mize a?d Xcurospora. Carnegie Institution of Ma3:lington Year TkxSi 44: 108-112. 1945. :wxLixltock, 3. !'kize Genetics. 45: 176-l&. 1946. Carnegie Institution of Vashington Year 1306k r McClintocP, B. Cytogenetic studies of xzaize WC: Ssro5pora. Carnegie Institution of XasNnfion Year 3ook 46: 146-152. 1947. McClintock, B. ~4Aable loci in mAzc. Carslegia Institution of WashIngton Year Book 47: 155-169. 1940. McClintock, 3. %-table loci in baize. Carnegie Institution of Uashington year aook 48: 142-154. 1949. HcClirtock, 3. The ori& and behavior of nutable loci in z&z@. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 36: 344-355. 1350. i'ccclintocl: , B. I!utable loci in naize. Book 43: 157-167. 3.950. Carnegie Institution of Washington Year -3- McCllntock, 3. Chromosome orpnization and genie expression. Cold Spring &arbor s;xqosis Quad. 301. 16: 13-47. 1951. McClintock, 3. LIutsble loci in r&ne. Eook 50: 174~-3.8L. 195L. Carnegie Institution of Washington Year McClintock, E. Xutable loci in maize. CarnegJe Institution of I*'aahln&on Year l3ook 51: 212-219. 1952. HcClintock, 3. :Mation in maize. Carnegie Institution of !&shin&on Year Book 52: 227-257. 1953. McClintock , B. Indwtion of instability at selected loci in maize. Ceuetics 38: 579~599. 1953. XcClintock, B. Eiutetions in maize and chromosomal aberrations in licurospora. Carnegie Institution of 'rlashiagton Year &ok 53: 254-260. 1954. . McClintock, 3. Controlled mutation in ma%ze. Yeax WC 54: 245-255. 19jfj. Carnegie Institution of Vashin$on :JcClint ock, 3. Xutation in m&ize. Carnegie Institution of WA&ton Year Eook 55: 323-332, McClintoek, 3. Controlling elements end the gene. Qll%nt. Biol. 21: 197-216. 1955. Cold Spring liarbor Sy-qosi~t HcClintock, 3. Intranuclear systems controlline gene action and znztation. 3rookhaven Symposia in 3ioloa 8: 58-74. 1956. McClintock, 13. Genetic and cytological studies of maize. Carnegie Institution of Vasilin&on Year Zook 56: 393-401, 1957. McClintock, 8. The suppressor-nut&or system of control of gene action in maize. Carnegie Institution of Vasfiirqton Yew %ok 57: 415-429. 1953. McClfntoek, 3. Genetic end cytolo~ic~ studies of ma5ze. Carnegie Institution of FJaahfn&on Year Book 5d: 452-456. 1959 McClintock, 3. C'hrozcosome constitutions of Xexicen and Guatemalan reces of mxize. Carnegie Institution of Fu'ashin$on Year Sook 53: 461-472. 1960. ElcClintock, 3. Further studies of the suppressor 4utator system of control of gene action in maize. 60: 463-475. 1961. CarneSie Institution of Washington Year Zook McClintock, 3. Some parallels betveen gene control systems in maize and in bacteria. Aclericm 28tueut 35: 265-277. ig5i. XcClintock, 3. Topo~sphical relations between elements of control systzzs in x8ize. Cerneeie Institution of ~as~n~ton year hook 61.: 44d-461.. 1962. -4- !&Clintock, B. Further studies of gene-control system in mizo. Carnegie institution of Washington Year 3ook 62: k%-493. 1963. McClintock, B. Aspects of gene re,nulation in xaize.Carnegie Institution of Washington Year Book 63: 592-601. 1964. McClintock , B. The cbntrol of gene action in maize. Brookhaven Syqmsia in Biology 18: 162-164. 1965. McClintock , B. Cqpanents of action of tbe re,&ators Sm ad I&. Carnegie Institution of Washington Year 3ook 64: 527-5x 1965. McClintock, B. Regulation of pattern of gene eqression by cozitrolling &le3&23 in maize. Carnegie Institution of Washington Year &ok 65: 563-538. 1966. EIcClintock, B. The states of a pne locus in ratze. Carnegie Institutioia of Uas'tington Year bok 66: 664~672. 1967. WcClintock, B. Genetic system regulating gene expression during developent. Developental Biolo,9y Su&. I: b4-U.2. 1961.