Chromosomes and Genes 167 



assumed that the gene is a composite of several blocks, the nemo- 

 meres. The functioning of the gene takes place in definite steps, a 

 certain number of levels of functioning, the quantum levels Q (a 

 kind of oflFspring of my former ideas on gene quantity). There are 

 Q + 1 levels of activity for each gene, Q being in the order of 

 magnitude of 3-10, and level being total inactivation. Now the 

 number of nemomeres is equal to Q (again my old theory of gene 

 quantities — valencies, and their relation to genie action). The nemo- 

 meres are joined to each other by relatively weak links, and inter- 

 genic links are hke intragenic ones. The nemomeres can be activated 

 and reactivated after inhibition by an all-or-none process. Each gene 

 has a haptogene specificitj'^ to matrix nucleoproteins and so has the 

 nemogene, and the haptogene (haptene group synthesized by the 

 gene) takes part in the formation of catalysts as primary gene action. 

 Special theories are presented describing how the molecules are 

 parallel and unfolded in the active gene parts (the haptogene sec- 

 tions) and arranged without order otherwise. Without going into 

 further details of the theory of the gene developed here, we realize 

 that the phenomenon of position effect is no better explained than 

 by the other discarded theories. We shall return to this again. 



ccc. Pseudoallelism and position effect. — We return now to one 

 of the important features of the position eflFect segments: all changes 

 at any point of the segments, including rearrangement breaks, de- 

 ficiencies, invisible point "mutations," produce eflFects which are allelic 

 to each other. (This, by the way, is what has now become of 

 Serebovsky and Dubinin's intuitive precursor idea of step-allelo- 

 morphism; see I 3 C a.) Already there is available a considerable 

 group of facts that touch upon the problem and the explanation, 

 as derived above, from a different angle — the facts concerning so- 

 called pseudoallehsm. Some of the finest analytical work of recent 

 genetics has gone into the study of the facts in the hands of Lewis, 

 Stadler, Green and Green, Pontecorvo, Roper, Stormont, Laughnan, 

 Irwin, and others. Simultaneously, interpretations have been proposed 

 within the classic theory of the gene, which presently we shall 

 contrast with our own ( Goldschmidt, 1946Z>, 1952a). 



In a general way, the decisive facts are as follows. What had 

 been known as two or more multiple alleles of one locus turned out 

 to be separable by very rare crossover breaks (Lewis, 1941, 1945, 

 1952). A number of similar cases have since been discovered by 

 Laughnan (1949, 1952a,b), Stephens (1948, 1951fl,b), and others. 

 What had been assumed to be multiple alleles turned out to be 



