Evening star., 1931-12-13
MYSTERIOUS GENE" BELIEVED
SEEN FIRST TIME BY SCIENTIST
Possibility of Separating Physical Entity
After Use of Special Method Opens Way
to New Study of Mystery of Life.

| gene, one of the major lines OF biological
research in the effort to find the COM
plicated laws of heredity and evolution,
has been like probing in the dark No
body has had the slightest concept Of
what a gene looked like. Now, it
was explained, the way may be open
to isolate 1t as q physical entity, to
watch the effects of different forces
upon 1t, and to penetrate deeper than
ever before into the mystery of living
matter.
Much progress has been made by the
Carnegie geneticiSts during the year, it
was reported in the study of properties
OF genes in terms Of the inheritance of
adult characteristics dependent on them.
They are described as tremendously
powerful reagents" slight changes in
the quality or position of single gene
yitaliy affecting the body of which it is
part.
Genes, the Carnegie researchers show,
are extremely stable. Throughout ma
ture 1t is safe to predict that the great
majority Of offspring will be very SINH
lar to their parents, from whom they
get the genes" which determine their
development. The offspring of white
parents will be white. The calves of
Jersey cattle will develop into Jersey
N"bbACs AliC SCCuS Ol ptIlHik klOi les
Will produce morning glories, There
will be a good many diff ferences be-
tween individuals, but the general
characters of race and species will be
handed down from generation to gener-
alton. This extreme stability, together
with its inVtsibility, make the nature OF
those rare gene changes responsible for
new varieties of living things extremely
hard to study. without these changes
evolution could not progress. The de-
viations from type produced by most Of
them are injurious and the new races
created rapidly become extinct.
Due to Gene Changes.
But some gene changes have been
observed, which are not necessarily in
furious and which afford good sub
jects for study. There is, for example,
the familiar red ear of field corn. At
the old-fashioned husking bees when a
boy found one OF these he wa entitled
to kiss all the girls. The color of corn
is due 10 one of its genes If this re-
mains stable the corn is white. II 1t
changes at the very beginning Of de-
velopment the ear Is red. II the change
occurs later the eax will be spotted
with red kernels, the number and dis
tribution corresponding to the stage OF
development reached when the gene
changed.
Another living thing in which the
Carnegie geneticistS have been able to
study gene changes is the larkspur.
The seed Ct this flower carries q gene
which, IL 1t remains stable, produces
roSe-colored flower. But some times, 1t
Is shown in the Carnegie exhibit,
purple flower will come from rose-col-
ored parents. This means that the gene
has been changed at the beginning CT
the flowers development. Some times
the flower win be rose spotted with
purple. From the nature of these spots
can be determined when the vital
change in the character-carTying unit
took place.
Unit of Heredity.
These studies, it was explained, tend
to establish the fact that the gene Is
the ultimate unit Ct heredity and that
the changes which occur are of
chemical nature. The gene Is pictured
either as single large organic mole
cule or as a small group of molecules.
The central dynamic force repre-
sented by the changes that occur in
genes" says the report on these expert
ments, lis as greatLa mystery as ever
Such changes may belong TO the cate
Boiy u Ilic eSoeIlIIaI pIopel tAes OF llle
in which change is the rule and sta
bility, even when judged by geology's
measuring rod, an Illusion like unto the
identity OF successive frames of a slow
motion picture film" .r+
The annual Carnegie scientific ex-
htbit, Of which the gene material is a
part, was opened to the public yester-
day and will remain open today and
tomorrow, with afternoon and evening
lectures by the specialists of each de-
partment