PAINTER, THEOPHILUS SHICKEL

(b. Aug. 22, 1889, Salem, Va., U.S.d. Oct. 5, 1969, Fort Stockton, Texas), American zoologist and cytologist who first identified individual genes in the chromosomes of fruit flies. Painter received a Ph.D. degree from Yale University (1913) and was a member of the faculty there (191316). In 1916 he joined the faculty of the University of Texas, where, in 1946, he became president. Painter early realized that the unusually large cells of the salivary glands of Drosophila fruit flies are particularly well suited for studies of genes and chromosomes. In 1933 he published a drawing of a section of a Drosophila chromosome showing more than 150 bands, which, for the first time, allowed determination of the precise loci, or positions, of genes.