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Edward Lawrie Tatum

 
Edward Lawrie Tatum

 
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Edward Lawrie Tatum
 
 
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Edward Lawrie Tatum (December 14, 1909 – November 5, 1975) was an American geneticist
Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
. He shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institutet. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Physiology or Medic...
 in 1958 with George Wells Beadle
George Wells Beadle

George Wells Beadle was an United States scientist in the field of genetics, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Nobel laureate who with Edward Lawrie Tatum discovered the role of genes in regulating biochemical events within cells....
 for showing that gene
Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
s control individual steps in metabolism
Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments....
. The other half of that year's award went to Joshua Lederberg
Joshua Lederberg

Joshua Lederberg was an United States molecular biology known for his work in genetics, artificial intelligence, and space exploration. He was just 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and exchange genes....
.

Beadle and Tatum's key experiments involved exposing the bread mold Neurospora crassa
Neurospora crassa

Neurospora crassa is a type of red bread mold of the phylum Ascomycota. The genus name, meaning "nerve spore" refers to the characteristic striations on the spores....
 to x-rays, causing mutation
Mutation

In biology, mutations are changes to the nucleotide sequence of the genetic material of an organism. Mutations can be caused by copying errors in the genetic material during cell division, by exposure to ultraviolet or ionizing radiation, chemical mutagens, or virus , or can be induced by the organism, itself, by cellular processes such as s...
s. In a series of experiments, they showed that these mutations caused changes in specific enzyme
Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
s involved in metabolic pathway
Metabolic pathway

In biochemistry, a metabolic pathway is a series of chemistry reactions occurring within a cell . In each pathway, a principal chemical is modified by chemical reactions....
s.






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Edward Lawrie Tatum (December 14, 1909 – November 5, 1975) was an American geneticist
Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
. He shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institutet. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Physiology or Medic...
 in 1958 with George Wells Beadle
George Wells Beadle

George Wells Beadle was an United States scientist in the field of genetics, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Nobel laureate who with Edward Lawrie Tatum discovered the role of genes in regulating biochemical events within cells....
 for showing that gene
Gene

A gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cell and pass genetic trait to offspring....
s control individual steps in metabolism
Metabolism

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments....
. The other half of that year's award went to Joshua Lederberg
Joshua Lederberg

Joshua Lederberg was an United States molecular biology known for his work in genetics, artificial intelligence, and space exploration. He was just 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and exchange genes....
.

Beadle and Tatum's key experiments involved exposing the bread mold Neurospora crassa
Neurospora crassa

Neurospora crassa is a type of red bread mold of the phylum Ascomycota. The genus name, meaning "nerve spore" refers to the characteristic striations on the spores....
 to x-rays, causing mutation
Mutation

In biology, mutations are changes to the nucleotide sequence of the genetic material of an organism. Mutations can be caused by copying errors in the genetic material during cell division, by exposure to ultraviolet or ionizing radiation, chemical mutagens, or virus , or can be induced by the organism, itself, by cellular processes such as s...
s. In a series of experiments, they showed that these mutations caused changes in specific enzyme
Enzyme

Enzymes are biomolecules that catalysis chemical reactions. Almost all enzymes are proteins. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called Substrate , and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, the products....
s involved in metabolic pathway
Metabolic pathway

In biochemistry, a metabolic pathway is a series of chemistry reactions occurring within a cell . In each pathway, a principal chemical is modified by chemical reactions....
s. These experiments, published in 1941, led them to propose a direct link between genes and enzymatic reactions, known as the "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis.

Tatum went on to study genetics in bacteria. An active area of research in his laboratory was to understand the basis of Tryptophan
Tryptophan

Tryptophan is one of the 20 List of standard amino acids, as well as an essential amino acid in the human diet. It is encoded in the standard genetic code as the codon UGG....
 biosynthesis
Biosynthesis

Biosynthesis is a phenomenon wherein chemical compounds are produced from simpler reagents. Biosynthesis, unlike chemosynthesis, takes place within living organisms and is generally catalyst by enzymes....
 in Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli

'Escherichia coli' , is a Gram negative bacterium that is commonly found in the lower gastrointestinal tract of warm-blooded animals. Most E....
. Later, Tatum and his student Lederberg showed that E. coli could share genetic information through recombination
Genetic recombination

Genetic recombination is the process by which a strand of genetic material is broken and then joined to a different DNA molecule. In eukaryotes recombination commonly occurs during meiosis as chromosomal crossover between paired chromosomes....
.

Tatum was born in Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is a Colorado municipalities#Home_Rule_Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County, Colorado, Colorado, in the United States....
. He attended college at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park, Chicago neighborhood of Chicago. Although an older university by the same name existed prior to its founding, the modern University of Chicago credits its founding to the oil magnate John D....
 and received his PhD in biochemistry
Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1934. Starting in 1937, he worked at Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
, where he began his collaboration with Beadle. He then moved to Yale University
Yale University

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, Yale is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher education in the United States and is a member of the Ivy League....
 in 1945 where he mentored Lederberg. He returned to Stanford in 1948 and then joined the faculty of Rockefeller Institute in 1957. A heavy cigarette
Cigarette

A cigarette is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of curing and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, often combined with other List of additives in cigarettes, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder ....
 smoker, he died in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 of heart failure complicated by chronic emphysema
Emphysema

Emphysema is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease . It is often caused by exposure to toxin Chemical substance, including long-term exposure to tobacco smoking....
.

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