Primary Actions 277 



facts of predetermination in eggs require the release of genie material 

 from the intact germinal vesicle, and some cases of maternal in- 

 heritance, especially those of sexual conditioning, require the same. 

 Since it is probable (see Anderson, 1953) that the nuclear membrane 

 can change its permeability and thus act selectively, a complicated 

 and orderly removal of different genie materials through the membrane 

 can be visualized (which might also include the retention of some 

 molecules until mitosis). 



Another point is, however, whether the primary genie materials, 

 responsible for heredity, will behave in the same way as the purely 

 trophic products of chromosomal action, a question which brings us 

 back to the former discussion of the genie material in the chromo- 

 somes. A decisive answer to these problems can hardly be expected 

 before we know what the genie material is and what its primary 

 products are. But the facts already known may shed light upon the 

 nature of the genie material. If we assume (see I 2 B c) that the DNA 

 is the genie material, not only do we face the greatest difficulties with 

 the genie products which directly or indirectly must be enzymes (i.e., 

 proteins), but, in addition, nothing known about the intranuclear 

 chemism makes sense any more. For this reason alone, we must 

 consider the proteinic part of the nucleoprotein the genuine genie 

 material, that is, the one which by replica formation produces the 

 different kinds of primary active gene products. The known facts to 

 which allusion was made relate only to the nucleinic part of the 

 chromatin, actually only to a small part of it. 



Caspersson's (see 1950) work on the locaHzation, movements, and 

 transformations of the nucleic acids within the nucleus has resulted 

 in the following picture, major parts of which must be correct. In the 

 region of the nucleolus organizer (McClintock, Heitz) in one or more 

 chromosomes, RNA accumulates, produced in some way by the DNA. 

 Together with proteins rich in diamine acids, this moves into the 

 nucleolus. From the nucleolus the RNA (or its parts) moves to the 

 nuclear membrane outside of which concentrated RNA accumulates 

 and there plays a role in protein synthesis. Thus DNA is needed for 

 the morphological organization of the genie material (which includes 

 the mechanism of its dupHcation, and also, I think, of the release of 

 primary gene products), while RNA takes care of diffuse protein 

 synthesis. If these views of Caspersson are correct, it follows that the 

 genie function and the trophic function of the nucleus are separated. 

 It would hardly be possible to conclude that the RNA, from nucleolus 

 to cytoplasm, was also genie, responsible for production of the specific 



