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Chapter 10 - Genetic Constancy and Variability
Barbara McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1983 for physiology and medicine in recognition of her studies of mobile genetic elements in inheritance. Visit the Nobel site and review the achievements and background of this important scientist. Was the significance of her findings quickly recognized? Did she have the benefit of knowing the structure of RNA and DNA? Are mobile genetic elemeents found in many organisms? Visit the Nobel Foundation website for a good illustration of how progress in science is not necessarily a step-by-set process.
(The site will open externally in a new window) One must not think of a cell as being static or fixed. Cellular processes must be controlled and varied. One of the important examples of cellular processes can be manipulated is known as the "lac operon." This is gene product regulation at the level of transcription. Visit the MIT biology hypertext website for a very nice explanation and abundant links to assocated aspects.
(The site will open externally in a new window) Look in the column "original publications" of this website. Tap the hyperlink "Alfred Sturtevant creates the world's first genetic map." You'll have to have Adobe Acrobat (available free on the web) to download this but it is worth doing. An undergraduate research project resulted in A. H. Sturtevant's 1913 paper on linear sequences of genes in the fruitfly, Drosophila. It was the first genetic map. Read this paper for an important historical insight into genetics. You will have a much better idea of what genetic maps are all about.
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