Controlling systems and controlling legacies: Barbara McClintock's 1961 conversation with two bacterial geneticists.
Barbara McClintock
François Jacob
Gender-neutral Science
Jacques Monod
The Matilda Effect
The Nobel Prize
Journal
History and philosophy of the life sciences
ISSN: 1742-6316
Titre abrégé: Hist Philos Life Sci
Pays: Switzerland
ID NLM: 8003052
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
12 Sep 2024
12 Sep 2024
Historique:
received:
29
10
2023
accepted:
26
08
2024
medline:
12
9
2024
pubmed:
12
9
2024
entrez:
12
9
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Barbara McClintock (1902-1992), the renowned American maize geneticist, received the 1983 Nobel Prize "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements," becoming the seventh woman scientist to receive a Nobel Prize. However, Nathaniel Comfort points out that McClintock viewed her primary contribution as the elucidation of control systems, rather than the discovery of mobile elements. McClintock's interest in control systems dates back to the 1940s, and this paper investigates her 1961 conversation with François Jacob and Jacques Monod, where she sought to shape the interpretation of her work by drawing parallels between maize control systems and a bacterial system they had recently discovered. Despite McClintock's efforts, Jacob and Monod rejected her parallels and suggested that her contribution was limited to mobile elements. Through an examination of their published papers, I argue that Jacob and Monod's rejection stemmed from their failure to fully comprehend maize control systems. Disciplinary discrepancy helps explain Jacob and Monod's lack of comprehension: they were molecular geneticists working on bacteria, while McClintock was a classical geneticist studying maize. I further argue that gender played a role, as McClintock experienced the Matilda effect-the under-recognition of her contribution, reinforced by the reactions of two male geneticists, and ironically, by the award of the Nobel Prize. Control systems, stemming from McClintock's reverence for organisms, embodied what Evelyn Fox Keller defines as "gender-neutral science." This divergent view of science provides insight into why Jacob and Monod failed to grasp McClintock's work in 1961.
Identifiants
pubmed: 39264389
doi: 10.1007/s40656-024-00631-9
pii: 10.1007/s40656-024-00631-9
doi:
Types de publication
Historical Article
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
31Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
Références
Comfort, N. C. (1995). Two genes, no enzyme: A second look at Barbara McClintock and the 1951 Cold spring harbor symposium. Genetics, 140(4), 1161–1166. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/140.4.1161
doi: 10.1093/genetics/140.4.1161
Comfort, N. C. (1999). ‘The real point is control’: The reception of Barbara McClintock’s controlling elements. Journal of the History of Biology, 32(1), 133–162. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1004468625863
doi: 10.1023/A:1004468625863
Comfort, N. C. (2001a). From controlling elements to transposons: Barbara McClintock and the Nobel prize. Trends in Genetics, 17(8), 475–478. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0968-0004(01)01898-9
doi: 10.1016/S0968-0004(01)01898-9
Comfort, N. C. (2001b). The tangled field: Barbara McClintock’s search for the patterns of genetic control. Harvard University Press.
doi: 10.4159/9780674029828
Comfort, N. C. (2002). Barbara McClintock’s controlling elements: Premature discovery or stillborn theory? In E. B. Hook (Ed.), Prematurity in scientific discovery: On resistance and neglect (pp. 175–199). University of California Press.
Creager, A. N. (2023). Evelyn Fox Keller (1936–2023). Science, 382(6674), 1000.
doi: 10.1126/science.adl4472
Fedoroff, N., & Botstein, D. (1992). The dynamic genome: Barbara McClintock’s ideas in the century of genetics. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
Friedmann, H. C. (2004). From butyribacterium to E. coli: An essay on unity in biochemistry. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 47(1), 47–66.
doi: 10.1353/pbm.2004.0007
Jacob, F. (1960) Genetic control of viral functions. In The Harvey Lectures 1958-1959. Series 54, 1–39. Academic Press.
Jacob, F. & J. Monod. (1961b). On the regulation of gene activity. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, 26, 193–211.
Jacob, François, Perrin, David, Sánchez, Carmen, & Monod, Jacques (2005 [1960]). L’Opéron: Groupe de gènes à expression coordonnée par un opérateur [C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris 250: 1727–1729]. Comptes Rendus. Biologies. 328(6), 514–520.
Jacob, F., & Monod, J. (1959). Gènes de structure et gènes de regulation dans la biosynthèse des proteins. Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences, 249, 1282–1284.
Jacob, F., & Monod, J. (1961a). Genetic regulatory mechanisms in the synthesis of proteins. Journal of Molecular Biology, 3(3), 318–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-2836(61)80072-7
doi: 10.1016/S0022-2836(61)80072-7
Judson, Horace Freeland (1979). The eighth day of creation: Makers of the revolution in biology. First Touchstone edition. Simon and Schuster.
Judson, Horace Freeland (1995). The eighth day of creation: Makers of the revolution in biology. Expanded edition. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
Keirns, C. (1999). Seeing patterns: Models, visual evidence and pictorial communication in the work of Barbara McClintock. Journal of the History of Biology, 32(1), 163–196.
doi: 10.1023/A:1004420726771
Keller, E. F. (1983a). A feeling for the organism, the life and work of Barbara McClintock. W.H. Freeman
Keller, Evelyn Fox. (2014). Pot-holes everywhere: How (not) to read my biography of Barbara McClintock. In Vita Fortunati and Elena Agazzi (Eds.) Writing about lives in science (pp. 33-42). V&R Unipress. https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737002639.33
Keller, E. F. (1983b). The force of the pacemaker concept in theories of aggregation in cellular slime mold. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 26(4), 515–521.
doi: 10.1353/pbm.1983.0049
Keller, E. F. (1985). Reflections on gender and science. Yale University Press.
Keller, E. F. (1987). The gender/science system: Or is sex to gender as nature is to science? Hypatia, 2(3), 37–49.
doi: 10.1111/j.1527-2001.1987.tb01340.x
Keller, E. F. (1995). Refiguring life: Metaphors of twentieth-century biology. Columbia University Press.
doi: 10.7312/kell92562
Keller, E. F., & Segel, L. A. (1970). Initiation of slime mold aggregation viewed as an instability. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 26(3), 399–415. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(70)90092-5
doi: 10.1016/0022-5193(70)90092-5
Longino, H. E. (1987). Can there be A Feminist Science? Hypatia, 2(3), 51–64.
doi: 10.1111/j.1527-2001.1987.tb01341.x
Masson, P., Surosky, R., Kingsbury, J. A., & Fedoroff, N. V. (1987). Genetic and molecular analysis of the spm-dependent a-m2 alleles of the maize a locus. Genetics, 117(1), 117–137. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/117.1.117
doi: 10.1093/genetics/117.1.117
McClintock, B. (1987). The discovery and characterization of transposable elements: The collected papers of Barbara McClintock. Garland Pub.
Merton, R. K. (1988). The Matthew effect in science, II: Cumulative advantage and the symbolism of intellectual property. Isis, 79(4), 606–623.
doi: 10.1086/354848
Méthot, P.-O. (2023). Jacob versus Monod on the natural selection of ideas. Hopos, 13(2), 492–510. https://doi.org/10.1086/726222
doi: 10.1086/726222
Monod, Jacques. (1965). From enzymatic adaption to allosteric transitions. Nobel Lecture. NobelPrize.org. Retrieved August 16, 2024, from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1965/monod/lecture/
Monod, J. (1970). Le hasard et la nécessité essai sur la philosophie naturelle de la biologie moderne. Éditions du Seuil.
Monod, J., & Jacob, F. (1961). General conclusions: Teleonomic mechanisms in cellular metabolism, growth, and differentiation. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, 26, 389–401.
doi: 10.1101/SQB.1961.026.01.048
Rheinberger, H. J. (2006). The notions of regulation, information, and language in the writings of François Jacob. Biological Theory, 1, 261–267. https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2006.1.3.261
doi: 10.1162/biot.2006.1.3.261
Rossiter, M. W. (1993). The Matthew Matilda effect in science. Social Studies of Science, 23(2), 325–341.
doi: 10.1177/030631293023002004
Rossiter, M. W. (1995). Women scientists in America: Before affirmative action, 1940–1972. Johns Hopkins University Press.
doi: 10.56021/9780801848933
Schiebinger, L. L. (2000). Has feminism changed Science?: Feminisms at a millennium. Signs, 25(4), 1171–1175.
doi: 10.1086/495540
The Nobel Prize. (1983). The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1983. Retrieved August 16, 2024, from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1983/summary/