Heritable variation and mutagenesis at early International Congresses of Genetics.

I encountered one John Walter Drake, known to ble researcher in a highly competitive field, is a challenge that few can handle. As Editor of Genetics he inmost everyone as “Jan,” 35 years ago in the Journal of Molecular Biology. It was in this once most fashduced a macromutation in its appearance and general quality which has made it the leading international jourionable journal of avant garde genetics that he published the first spectrum for UV-induced mutagenesis (Drake nal in its field today. Thus he has been in a unique position to know who is doing what, and doing it well, 1963). His experimental system was the r II region of bacteriophage T4. Comparing Jan’s data with Seymour in basic genetical research worldwide. This background made him the obvious person to serve as Chairman of Benzer’s r II spectrum for spontaneous mutations (Benzer 1961), it became immediately clear that the the International Program Committees not just for one, but for two, of the eight International Congresses of spectra, the positions of “hot spots” and the mutational specificities for UV-induced and spontaneous mutations Genetics (ICG) that have been organized since he completed his Ph.D. in 1957: the 16th held in Toronto in are different. This article was the inspiration for what has become a veritable industry in contemporary analy1988, and the 18th to be held in Beijing in August 1998. As President of the Toronto congress and an honorary sis of mutational spectra at the genetic site and DNA sequence levels. The importance of this work was recogVice-President of the Beijing congress, I know how much thought, time and effort he contributed to formulating nized immediately, particularly by photobiologists interested in the recently discovered UV photoproducts the scientific programs of these two large and important meetings. in DNA (thymine dimers). Thus Jan was invited to participate in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences– Table 1 contains a list of all meetings of the ICG, their Presidents and Secretaries-General (or equivalent National Research Council conference on Structural Defects in DNA and their Repair in Microorganisms, held at where known), and bibliographic references to their proceedings. Further details regarding sponsorship, atthe University of Chicago in October of 1965 (Haynes et al. 1966).2 It was there that I first met him in person tendance and numbers of papers presented at the first 16 congresses are available in the report of the Secretaryand we have remained close friends and colleagues ever since. General for the 1988 congress (Walden 1989). The proceedings of the ICGs provide a fascinating overview As readers of Genetics will know, throughout his career Jan has been one of the preeminent students of of the problems and theories that have attracted the attention of our international community during the the molecular basis of mutation. Indeed he wrote what soon became, and remains almost three decades later, first century of genetics.3 As I reflected on topics I might discuss in Jan’s Festthe classic book on the subject (Drake 1970). It must be a classic because it received such an effusive review schrift, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to recall some of the highlights of past ICGs. Most of the in Science as soon as it was published (Haynes 1971). Throughout his career Jan also has been an unusually notable advances in genetics’ broad domain have been good and very dedicated citizen of science. To commit oneself whole-heartedly to responsible public service in The published proceedings of genetics congresses contain a wealth science, and also maintain one’s position as a formidaof material that should be grist for the mill of any serious historian of genetics whether professional or amateur. It would be an appropriate “millennium project” for someone, perhaps a graduate student in the history of biology, to make a detailed study of all 20th century ICG Address for correspondence: Prof. R. H. Haynes, Department of Biology, proceedings in order to delineate the shifting balance of interests in York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3 Canada. the various branches of genetics at these congresses. Some good E-mail: [email protected] examples of the historical gems that might be mined in such a project 1 My apologies to Theodosius Dobzhansky. are evident in the Presidential Addresses of Ernst Hadorn and Curt Stern at the 11th and 13th ICGs in The Hague and Berkeley, respec2 This was the first formal symposium on the macromolecular processes of DNA repair and its relation to mutagenesis. For an historical tively (Hadorn 1965; Stern 1974), and in Crow’s article on the 6th ICG held at Cornell in 1932 (Crow 1992). account of the discovery of DNA repair see Friedberg (1997).