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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <title>George Wells Beadle :: DNA from the Beginning</title> <meta name="description" content="Biography of George Wells Beadle from Concept 16: One gene makes one protein, DNA from the Beginning" /> <link rel="preload" as="style" src="/css/main.css"> <link rel="preload" as="script" src="/js/swfobject.js"> <link rel="preload" as="script" src="/js/prototype-1.6.1.js"> <link href="/css/main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Droid+Serif' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/> <link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Droid+Sans' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/> <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/prototype-1.6.1.js"></script> </head> <body> <div id="container"> <div id="content"> <div id="header"> <div class="rollover-home"> <a href="/" class="rollover-home" title="DNA from the Beginning Home"><span class="displace">Home</span></a> </div> </div>  <div id="content-container"> <h1><span> Concept 16</span> One gene makes one protein.</h1> <div id="nav"> <ul> <li class="menu1"><a href="index.html" title="CONCEPT" ><span class="displace">CONCEPT</span></a></li> <li class="menu2"><a href="animation.html" title="ANIMATION"><span class="displace">ANIMATION</span></a></li> <li class="menu3"><a href="gallery.html" title="GALLERY"><span class="displace">GALLERY</span></a></li> <li class="menu4"><a href="av.html" title="VIDEO"><span class="displace">VIDEO</span></a></li> <li class="menu5"><a href="bio.html" title="BIO"><span class="displace">BIO</span></a></li> <li class="menu6"><a href="problem.html" title="PROBLEM"><span class="displace">PROBLEM</span></a></li> <li class="menu7"><a href="links.html" title="LINKS" ><span class="displace">LINKS</span></a></li> </ul> <br class="clearfloat" /> </div> <div id="bio"> <p><a href="/16/bio.html"><img src="/images/16/bio_beadle_thumb.jpg" alt="George Beadle" class="floatLeft" /> </a> <a href="/16/bio-2.html"><img src="/images/16/bio_tatum_thumb.jpg" alt="Edward Tatum" class="floatLeft" /></a> <a href="/16/bio.html">George Beadle</a> had successful research careers in corn and <i>Drosophila</i> genetics, before starting the field of <i>Neurospora</i> research. George Beadle and <a href="/16/bio-2.html">Edward Tatum</a> used <i>Neurospora</i> to prove that "one gene makes one protein." Tatum also had a role in starting bacterial genetics.<br class="clearfloat" /></p> <div id="people-list"> <ul> <li><span class="small">Go to:</span></li> <li><a href="/16/bio-2.html">Edward Lawrie Tatum (1909-1975)</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="bio-current1"> <h2>George Wells Beadle (1903-1989)</h2> </div> <br class="clearfloat" /> <div id="border"></div> <img src="/images/16/16bio.jpg" alt="George Beadle" class="floatRight" /> <p>George Beadle, "Beets" to his friends, was born in Wahoo, Nebraska. His father was a farmer and had a 40-acre farm just outside Wahoo. Beadle's mother died when he was four, and Beadle, his brother, and his sister were raised by his father and housekeepers.</p> <p>Beadle's father thought he might become a farmer. However, Beadle's high school science teacher encouraged him to go to college. Beadle graduated from the <a href = "http://www.unl.edu/">University of Nebraska</a> <a href = "http://casnr.unl.edu/">College of Agriculture</a> with a science degree in 1926, and stayed an extra year to finish a master's degree. </p> <p>While working on his master's degree on the ecology of grasses, Beadle became interested in genetics. He applied to graduate school at <a href = "http://www.cornell.edu">Cornell University</a> and, in 1927, joined R. A. Emerson's group to work on corn genetics. Emerson's group included <a href="/32/bio.html">Barbara McClintock</a> who later helped Beadle figure out the chromosome number of <i>Neurospora</i>.</p> <p>After he finished his Ph.D. in 1931, Beadle did post doctoral work in T. H. Morgan's newly established biology division at <a href = "http://www.caltech.edu">Caltech</a> and then in Paris with Boris Ephrussi. Beadle worked with the "hot" genetics model of the day, <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>. He published papers on crossing over and developed the technique of imaginal disc transplantation. Beadle, with Ephrussi, also published a 1937 paper on the interaction of genes in determining <i>Drosophila</i> eye color. Hints of the "one gene-one enzyme" hypothesis were in this paper. Beadle and Ephrussi alluded to genes making substances necessary for pigmentation and to mutations in the genes disrupting this process.</p> <p>In 1937, Beadle teamed up with Edward Tatum at <a href = "http://www.stanford.edu">Stanford University</a> to isolate and identify the eye color "substances." They were beaten by another group; however, this just convinced Beadle that they needed a simpler genetic system to study the question of gene action. He found it in <i>Neurospora</i>, and in 1940, Beadle converted his <i>Drosophila</i> lab into one set up to grow and culture <i>Neurospora</i>. </p> <p>Beadle's plan to mutate <i>Neurospora</i> and test for nutritional deficiencies was sound; however, there was no guarantee of success. Beadle and Tatum agreed ahead of time only to test 5,000 cultures before giving up on the idea. They collected and stored over 1,000 irradiated cultures before they actually tested any of them. Success came with the 299th culture. Beadle and Tatum published their results in 1941 and shared the <a href = "http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1958/">1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine</a>.</p> <p>Beadle was a popular and much admired boss. Enthusiastic, practical and funny, no job was too big or too small. He directed as well as did the experiments; he also took care of the lab by doing many of the small repairs and making some of the necessary equipment. </p> <p>In 1945, Beadle accepted the Chair of the Division of Biology at Caltech, replacing T. H. Morgan who had died. From 1961 to 1968, Beadle served as the President of the <a href = "http://www.uchicago.edu">University of Chicago</a>, and was able to bolster and strengthen the university's image. After retirement in 1969, Beadle took up research again to try and determine the origin of maize. In 1981, Beadle developed Alzheimer disease. He died in 1989, bringing a distinguished career to an end.</p> <div id="factoid-bio"> <img src="/images/general/factoid.gif" alt="factoid" class="factoid-image" /> <img src="/images/general/didyouknow.jpg" alt="Did you know ?" /> <p>Three years after the <i>Neurospora</i> paper, George Beadle became aware of the work Archibald Garrod did on alkaptonuria in 1902. Beadle saw the similarities and credited Garrod with being the first to work on the "one gene/one protein" theory.</p> <img src="/images/general/hmmm.jpg" alt="Hmmm..." /> <p>In 1902, Archibald Garrod proposed that diseases are "inborn errors of metabolism." Why wasn't Garrods' theory well-known and accepted in 1902?</p> </div> </div> </div> <br class="clearfloat" /> <div id="footer"> <ul> <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="/sitemap.html">Site Map</a></li> <li><a href="/scientists.html">Scientists</a></li> <li><a href="/glossary.html">Glossary</a></li> <li><a href="/feedback.html">Feedback</a></li> <li><a href="/awards.html">Awards</a></li> <li><a href="/credits.html">Credits</a></li> <li><a href="http://blogs.dnalc.org/dnaftb/" style="background-image:none;">Blog</a></li> </ul> <p> Funded by <a href="http://macyfoundation.org">The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation</a><br /> © 2002 - 2011, <a href="http://www.dnalc.org/"> DNA Learning Center</a>, <a href="https://www.cshl.edu/">Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory</a>. All rights reserved. </p> </div>  </div> <div id="sidebar"> <div id="search" > <form method="get" action="/search"> <div class="fieldHolder1"> <input type="search" id="q" name="q" placeholder="Search" onclick="this.value=''" value="" /> <img style="background-color:#9C0;" src="/images/general/search_icon.jpg" alt="Search" onclick="document.forms[0].submit()" /> </div> </form> </div>  <div id="sidebar"> <ul class="menu-side"> <li class="section1" style="margin-bottom: 3px;"><a href="/1/index.html" title="Classical Genetics"><span class="displace">CLASSICAL GENETICS</span></a></li> </ul> <ul class="sections-side sections-side2a" style="padding-top: 56px;"> <li ><a href="/15/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/15-thumb-sm.png" alt="15." />DNA and proteins are key molecules of the cell nucleus.</a></li> <li ><a class="concept-highlight" href="/16/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/16-thumb-sm.png" alt="16." />One gene makes one protein.</a></li> <li ><a href="/17/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/17-thumb-sm.png" alt="17." />A gene is made of DNA.</a></li> <li ><a href="/18/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/18-thumb-sm.png" alt="18." />Bacteria and viruses have DNA too.</a></li> <li ><a href="/19/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/19-thumb-sm.png" alt="19." />The DNA molecule is shaped like a twisted ladder.</a></li> <li ><a href="/20/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/20-thumb-sm.png" alt="20." />A half DNA ladder is a template for copying the whole.</a></li> <li ><a href="/21/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/21-thumb-sm.png" alt="21." />RNA is an intermediary between DNA and protein.</a></li> <li ><a href="/22/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/22-thumb-sm.png" alt="22." />DNA words are three letters long.</a></li> <li ><a href="/23/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/23-thumb-sm.png" alt="23." />A gene is a discrete sequence of DNA nucleotides.</a></li> <li ><a href="/24/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/24-thumb-sm.png" alt="24." />The RNA message is sometimes edited.</a></li> <li ><a href="/25/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/25-thumb-sm.png" alt="25." />Some viruses store genetic information in RNA.</a></li> <li ><a href="/26/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/26-thumb-sm.png" alt="26." />RNA was the first genetic molecule.</a></li> <li ><a href="/27/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/27-thumb-sm.png" alt="27." />Mutations are changes in genetic information.</a></li> <li style="border-bottom: 1px solid #669;"><a href="/28/"><img src="/images/thumbnails/28-thumb-sm.png" alt="28." />Some types of mutations are automatically repaired.</a></li> </ul> <ul class="menu-side"> <li class="section3"><a href="/29/index.html" title="Genetic Organization and Control"><span class="displace">GENETIC ORGANIZATION AND CONTROL</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div>  <br class="clearfloat" /> </div>  <script type="text/javascript"> Event.observe(window, 'load', function() { var uri = '/16/bio.html'; uri = uri.replace(/-\d/,''); $('nav').down().descendants().each(function(s) { if (s.nodeName == 'A') { if (s.href.match(uri)) { s.addClassName('current'); throw $break; } } }); }); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1818773-10']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = 'https://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script>  <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-K6EHFCRJBP"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-K6EHFCRJBP'); </script> </body> </html>