BEADLE, GEORGE WELLS


Meaning of BEADLE, GEORGE WELLS in English

born Oct. 22, 1903, Wahoo, Neb., U.S.

died June 9, 1989, Pomona, Calif.

U.S. geneticist.

He earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University. While studying Drosophila , he realized that genes must influence heredity chemically and designed a complex technique to determine the nature of those effects, showing that something as apparently simple as eye colour results from a long series of chemical reactions, which are affected by genes. With Edward L. Tatum , he found that the total environment of a bread mold could be varied so that researchers could locate and identify mutations relatively easily, concluding that each gene determines the structure of a specific enzyme, which in turn allows a single chemical reaction to proceed. For the "one gene, one enzyme" concept, they shared a 1958 Nobel Prize with Joshua Lederberg . Beadle later served as president of the University of Chicago (1960–68).

Britannica English dictionary.      Английский словарь Британика.