Barbara McClintock & jumpin' genes

Jumpin’ Genes and Barbara McClintock.  Sounds like a new singing group right, maybe a novel of some sort?  Actually, it’s an amazing, groundbreaking, theory about genetics that was announced by Barbara McClintock in 1951.  Barbara claimed that certain genes could move around on the chromosome, even though conventional wisdom said that such movement was impossible.

Barbara discovered this bizarre “sharing” of genetic traits going on between chromosomes while she was researching the reactions of cells to traumatic genetic damage (you know, shoot a cell full of radiation, get traumatic genetic damage).  She noticed that, after a cell was damaged, some of the repaired chromosomes would behave “differently”, as if they were not quite the same chromosome they were before the damage. Certain genes seemed to be jumping from cell to cell, trading places with each other.  Her primary goal was to learn how traumatic mutations affected the genetic structure of an organism, but she also knew the conventional wisdom that “genes can’t move.”  Taking a deep breath she threw convention out the window and ran with her ideas!

Using corn, Barbara demonstrated that some genes, “jumpin’ genes”, could not only move to new digs, but that these “mobile genetic elements” also occurred in all living things!  This discovery of was huge and the response from fellow academics was equally large…they called Barbara a crackpot, and her funding was cut.

Over the next THIRTY-TWO years, five different male scientists received the Nobel Prize using elements of her research in genetics.  Her research, that no one would take seriously, was hidden away in the footnotes of these Nobel Prize winner’s publications and she was still left out in the academic cold reserved for crackpots and nut cases.  Maybe the academic world was waiting for Barbara to die or retire or just go away, but Barbara wouldn’t play along.  She continued to publish her research, continued to speak out, and continued to demand fair treatment.  If her work was good enough to win FIVE Nobel Prizes, why didn’t she have one on her own mantle collecting dust?

Finally, in 1983, Barbara McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine for the research she did in the 1950s.  Jumpin’ Genes and Barbara McClintock.  Next time you sit down on the couch with a bowl of popcorn to enjoy that little “social conforming” ritual known as late night TV, think about Barbara’s refusal to stay quiet in the face of conventional wisdom.

 

Tracy Madison  grrl-e-grrl.com contributor