Evolving genes and proteins : a symposium held at the Institute of Microbiology of Rutgers, with support from the National Science Foundation / edited by Vernon Bryson and Henry J. Vogel.

Date:
1965
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Credit: Evolving genes and proteins : a symposium held at the Institute of Microbiology of Rutgers, with support from the National Science Foundation / edited by Vernon Bryson and Henry J. Vogel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Preface Recent accomplishments in biochemistry and genetics have drawn evolution into the context of molecular biology. Such a development was foreseen by the pioneer evolutionists. Darwin, although organismally oriented, spoke of natural selection among the molecules. Huxley, in 1869, frankly linked evolution to biochemistry: It is a probable hypothe¬ sis that what the world is to organisms in general each organism is to the molecules of which it is composed. Multitudes of these, having diverse tendencies, are competing with one another for opportunity to exist and multiply; and the organism, as a whole, is as much the product of the molecules which are victorious as the Fauna, or Flora of a country is the product of the victorious organic beings in it. Views of molecular evolu¬ tion in relation to organismal evolution are thus time-honored. What opens up an entirely new perspective is the information, now emerging in remarkable detail, as to structural and functional features of proteins and nucleic acids. A symposium on Evolving Genes and Proteins was held at the Insti¬ tute of Microbiology of Rutgers, The State University, September 17 and 18, 1964, with support from the National Science Foundation. A four- page summary of the symposium proceedings has appeared in Science 147: 68, 1965. The full proceedings are contained in this volume. We wish to express our warm appreciation to Dr. E. L. Tatum for his delivery of the Opening Address. The contributions of the session chair¬ men, Dr. K. V. Thimann, Dr. C. B. van Niel, Dr. C. B. Anfinsen, Dr. E. L. Smith, Dr. D. Stetten, Jr., Dr. P. H. Abelson, Dr. P. Doty, Dr. W. Braun, and Dr. R. D. Hotchkiss, and of Dr. T. M. Sonneborn, who made his presentation as an Evening Lecture, are also gratefully acknowledged. For their fine assistance in connection with many details of the meet¬ ing, we thank Mr. E. R. Isaacs and the other stafiF members of the Institute of Microbiology who were involved. April, 1965 Vernon Bryson Henry J. Vogel xvii