THE GENE 

 AND BIOCHEMISTRY 



G. W. BEADLE, professor of genetics, school of biological 



SCIENCES, STANFORD UNIVERSITY 



/ 



"T IS both an accident of organic evolution and an indication 

 of man's lack of foresight that the organisms studied in most 

 detail by biochemists have not been those on which geneticists have 

 concentrated. It is natural that man should have a prejudice in 

 favor of himself, and it is therefore not remarkable that the urge of 

 medicine on biochemistry has been in the direction of specialization 

 on mammals, particularly on man himself. For obvious reasons, 

 bacterial biochemistry has likewise been well nourished through 

 medicine. Man has few inherent advantages for biochemical study 

 while the bacteria abound in them. But both are most difficult for 

 the geneticist — the one because of a long life cycle and social obstacles 

 to controlled matings, the other because of the absence of a sexual 

 cycle without which the geneticist cannot use his particular methods. 

 The geneticist, on the other hand, has chosen to make the vinegar fly 

 and Indian corn the classical organisms of his science. Both suffer 

 disadvantages to the biochemist in not lending themselves readily to 

 culture under precisely defined environmental conditions. Neither 

 can be grown conveniently on a medium completely known from a 

 chemical standpoint. 



In spite of this situation and additional impediments arising 

 through divergence in outlook, such persons as Garrod, Onslow (n^e 

 Wheldale), Troland, Goldschmidt, Wright, Haldane, and others have 



