View source for George Beadle

{{short description|American geneticist (1903–1989)}}
{{for|New Zealand rugby league international|George Beadle (rugby league)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|ForMemRS}}
| birth_name        = George Wells Beadle
| image             = George Wells Beadle.jpg
| birth_date        = {{birth date|mf=y|1903|10|22}}<ref name="frs"/>
| birth_place       = [[Wahoo, Nebraska|Wahoo]], [[Nebraska]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{death date and age|mf=y|1989|06|09|1903|10|22}}
| death_place       = [[Pomona, California]], U.S.
| field             = [[Genetics]]
| education         = [[University of Nebraska–Lincoln|University of Nebraska]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]]) <br/>[[Cornell University]] ([[Master of Science|MS]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])
| work_institution  = {{ublist|[[California Institute of Technology]]|[[University of Chicago]]|[[Harvard University]]|[[Stanford University]]}}
| thesis_title      = Genetical and Cytological Studies of Mendelian Asynapsis in Zea mays
| thesis_year       = 1930
| thesis_url        = https://www.proquest.com/docview/301772751/
| doctoral_advisor  = {{Plainlist|
* [[Rollins A. Emerson]]
* [[Lester W. Sharp]]<ref name=DevTree/>
}}
| academic_advisors = {{Plainlist|
* [[Franklin David Keim|Franklin D. Keim]]<ref name=DevTree>{{cite web |title=DevTree - George Wells Beadle |url=https://academictree.org/dev/peopleinfo.php?pid=13579 |website=academictree.org}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Hunt Morgan]] {{small|(post-doc)}}<ref name=DevTree/>
}}
| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|
* [[Robert Metzenberg]]<ref name=DevTree/>
}}
| notable_students  = {{Plainlist|
* [[Norman Horowitz]] {{small|(post-doc)}}
* [[Herschel K. Mitchell]] {{small|(post-doc)}}
* [[William D. McElroy]] {{small|(post-doc)}}
* [[Clement Markert]] {{small|(post-doc)}}
}}
| known_for         = {{ublist|[[One gene-one enzyme hypothesis]]|[[Gene]] regulation of biochemical events within cells}}
| prizes            = {{Plainlist|
<!--* [[Member of the National Academy of Sciences]] {{small|(1944)}}-->
* [[Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research]] {{small|(1950)}}
* [[Mendel Medal (genetics)|Mendel Medal]] {{small|(1958)}}
* [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] {{small|(1958)}}
<!--* [[Foreign Member of the Royal Society]] {{small|(1960)}}-->
* [[Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal]] {{small|(1984)}}}}
}}

'''George Wells Beadle''' (October 22, 1903 – June 9, 1989) was an American geneticist. In 1958 he shared one-half of the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] with [[Edward Tatum]] for their discovery of the role of [[gene]]s in regulating biochemical events within cells.<ref name="nas">{{Biographical Memoirs|beadle-g-w|George W. Beadle}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal 
| doi = 10.1126/science.119.3086.229 
| last1 = Stern | first1 = C. 
| title = George W. Beadle 
| journal = Science 
| volume = 119 
| issue = 3086 
| pages = 229–230 
| year = 1954 
| pmid = 13135519
| bibcode = 1954Sci...119..229S 
| doi-access = free 
}}</ref> He served as the [[President of the University of Chicago|7th president]] of the [[University of Chicago]] from 1961 to 1968.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://president.uchicago.edu/directory/george-w-beadle|title=George W. Beadle {{!}} Office of the President {{!}} The University of Chicago|website=president.uchicago.edu|date=12 June 2012|access-date=2019-06-22}}</ref>

Beadle and Tatum's key experiments involved exposing the bread [[Mold (fungus)|mold]] ''[[Neurospora crassa]]'' to [[x-ray]]s, causing [[mutation]]s.  In a series of experiments, they showed that these mutations caused changes in specific [[enzyme]]s involved in [[metabolic pathway]]s.  These experiments led them to propose a direct link between genes and enzymatic reactions, known as the [[One gene-one enzyme hypothesis]].<ref name="onegeneonenz">{{Cite journal | last1 = Beadle | first1 = G. W. | last2 = Tatum | first2 = E. L. | doi = 10.1073/pnas.27.11.499 | title = Genetic Control of Biochemical Reactions in Neurospora | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume = 27 | issue = 11 | pages = 499–506 | year = 1941 | pmid =  16588492| pmc = 1078370| bibcode = 1941PNAS...27..499B | url = http://authors.library.caltech.edu/13093/1/BEApnas41.pdf | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>Paul Berg and Maxine Singer.  ''George Beadle: An Uncommon Farmer.  The Emergence of Genetics in the 20th Century''.  Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory Press, 2003.  {{ISBN|0-87969-688-5}}</ref><ref>[http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/blood/people/beadle.html Key Participants: George Beadle] - ''It's in the Blood!  A Documentary History of Linus Pauling, Hemoglobin, and Sickle Cell Anemia''</ref>

==Education and early life==
George Wells Beadle was born in [[Wahoo, Nebraska]]. He was the son of Chauncey Elmer Beadle and Hattie Albro, who owned and operated a {{convert|40|acre|m2|adj=on}} farm nearby.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Beadle | first1 = G. W. | title = Recollections | doi = 10.1146/annurev.bi.43.070174.000245 | journal = Annual Review of Biochemistry | volume = 43 | pages = 1–13 | year = 1974 | pmid =  4605017| doi-access = free }}</ref> George was educated at the Wahoo High School and might himself have become a farmer if one of his teachers at school had not directed his mind towards science and persuaded him to go to the [[College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (University of Nebraska–Lincoln)|College of Agriculture]] in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1926 he earned his [[Bachelor of Science]] degree at the [[University of Nebraska–Lincoln|University of Nebraska]] and subsequently worked for a year with Professor [[Franklin David Keim|F.D. Keim]], who was studying hybrid wheat. In 1927 he earned his [[Master of Science]] degree, and Professor Keim secured for him a post as Teaching Assistant at [[Cornell University]], where he worked, until 1931, with Professors [[Rollins A. Emerson|R.A. Emerson]] and [[Lester W. Sharp|L.W. Sharp]] on Mendelian asynapsis in ''[[Zea mays]]''.<ref name="phd"/> For this work he obtained, in 1931, his [[Doctor of Philosophy]] degree.<ref name="phd">{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=George Wells|last=Beadle |title=Genetical and Cytological Studies of Mendelian Asynapsis in Zea mays  |publisher=Cornell University |date=1930 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/301772751|author-link=George Wells Beadle |id={{ProQuest|301772751}} }}</ref>

==Career and research==
In 1931 Fellowship at the [[California Institute of Technology]] at Pasadena, where he remained from 1931 until 1936. During this period he continued his work on Indian corn and began, in collaboration with Professors [[Theodosius Dobzhansky]], S. Emerson, and [[Alfred Sturtevant]], work on crossing-over in the fruit fly, ''[[Drosophila melanogaster]]''.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}

In 1935 Beadle visited [[Paris]] for six months to work with Professor [[Boris Ephrussi]] at the [[Institut de biologie physico-chimique|Institut de Biologie physico-chimique]]. Together they began the study of the development of eye pigment in Drosophila which later led to the work on the biochemistry of the genetics of the fungus Neurospora for which Beadle and Edward Lawrie Tatum were together awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

In 1936 Beadle left the California Institute of Technology to become Assistant Professor of Genetics at [[Harvard University]]. A year later he was appointed Professor of Biology (Genetics) at [[Stanford University]] and there he remained for nine years, working for most of this period in collaboration with Tatum.  This work of Beadle and Tatum led to an important generalization. This was that most mutants unable to grow on minimal medium, but able to grow on “complete” medium, each require addition of only one particular supplement for growth on minimal medium. If the synthesis of a particular nutrient (such as an [[amino acid]] or [[vitamin]]) was disrupted by [[mutation]], that mutant strain could be grown by adding the necessary nutrient to the minimal medium.<ref>Beadle, G. W. (1966) "Biochemical genetics: some recollections", pp. 23-32 in Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology, edited by J. Cairns, G. S. Stent and J. D. Watson. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of Quantitative Biology, NY. ASIN: B005F08IQ8</ref>  This finding suggested that most mutations affected only a single [[metabolic pathway]]. Further evidence obtained soon after the initial findings tended to show that generally only a single step in the pathway is blocked. Following their first report of three such [[auxotrophy|auxotroph]] mutants in 1941, Beadle and Tatum used this method to create series of related mutants and determined the order in which amino acids and some other [[metabolite]]s were synthesized in several metabolic pathways.  The obvious inference from these experiments was that each gene mutation affects the activity of a single enzyme. This led directly to the [[one gene-one enzyme hypothesis]], which, with certain qualifications and refinements, has remained essentially valid to the present day. As recalled by Horowitz,<ref>Horowitz NH (May, 1996).  "The sixtieth anniversary of biochemical genetics".  Genetics. 143 (1): 1-4. doi:10.1093/genetics/143.1.1.PMC 1207243. PMID 8722756</ref>  the work of Beadle and Tatum also demonstrated that [[gene]]s have an essential role in [[biosynthesis]]. At the time of the experiments (1941), non-geneticists still generally believed that genes governed only trivial biological traits, such as eye color, and bristle arrangement in fruit flies, while basic biochemistry was determined in the cytoplasm by unknown processes. Also, many respected geneticists thought that gene action was far too complicated to be resolved by any simple experiment. Thus Beadle and Tatum brought about a fundamental revolution in our understanding of genetics.

In 1946 Beadle returned to the California Institute of Technology as Professor of Biology and Chairman of the Division of Biology. Here he remained until January 1961 when he was elected Chancellor of the University of Chicago and, in the autumn of the same year, President of this university.

After retiring, Beadle undertook a remarkable experiment in [[maize]] genetics.  In several laboratories he grew a series of [[Teosinte]]/Maize crosses.  Then he crossed these progeny with each other.  He looked for the rate of appearance of parent phenotypes among this second generation.  The vast majority of these plants were intermediate between maize and Teosinte in their features, but about 1 in 500 of the plants were identical to either the parent maize or the parent teosinte.  Using the mathematics of Mendelian genetics, he calculated that this showed a difference between maize and teosinte of about 5 or 6 genetic loci.  This demonstration was so compelling that most scientists now agree that Teosinte is the wild progenitor of maize.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Beadle | first1 = G. W. | year = 1980 | title = The ancestry of corn | journal = Scientific American | volume = 242 | issue = 1| pages = 112–119 | doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0180-112| bibcode = 1980SciAm.242a.112B}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Beadle|first1=George|title=The Ancestry of Corn|url=http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/dcgrove/mexarchreadings/corn.pdf|access-date=2 July 2014}}</ref>

During his career, Beadle has received many honors. These include the Honorary [[Doctor of Science]] of the following Universities: Yale (1947), Nebraska (1949), Northwestern University (1952), Rutgers University (1954), Kenyon College (1955), Wesleyan University (1956), the [[University of Birmingham]] and the [[University of Oxford]], England (1959), Pomona College (1961), and Lake Forest College (1962). In 1962 he was also given the honorary degree of LL.D. by the University of California, Los Angeles. He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1946.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=May 28, 2011}}</ref> He also received the Lasker Award of the American Public Health Association (1950), the Dyer Award (1951), the Emil Christian Hansen Prize of Denmark (1953), the Albert Einstein Commemorative Award in Science (1958), the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1958 with Edward Tatum and [[Joshua Lederberg]], the National Award of the American Cancer Society (1959), and the Kimber Genetics Award of the National Academy of Sciences (1960).

===Awards and honors===
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Beadle received numerous other awards. Beadle was a member of several learned societies, he was a [[Member of the National Academy of Sciences]]<ref name=nasmember>{{cite web|url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/57907.html|title=G. Beadle|website=Nasonline.org|access-date=29 April 2019}}</ref> (and Chairman of Committee on Genetic Effects of Atomic Radiation), the [[Genetics Society of America]] (President in 1946), the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] (President in 1955), the [[American Cancer Society]] (Chairman of Scientific Advisory Council), a [[Foreign Member of the Royal Society]] (ForMemRS) of London,<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Horowitz | first1 = Norman H. | author-link = Norman Horowitz| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1995.0003 | title = George Wells Beadle. 23 October 1903-9 June 1989 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]]|publisher=[[Royal Society]] | volume = 41 | pages = 44–54| year = 1995 | pmid = 11615361 | doi-access = free }}</ref> the Danish Royal Academy of Science and the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?smode=advanced;subject=2.%20Biological%20Sciences;startDoc=21|title=APS Member History|website=Search.amphilsoc.org|access-date=2019-04-07}}</ref>

The [[George W. Beadle Award]] of the [[Genetics Society of America]] is named in his honor. George Beadle Middle School in [[Millard, Nebraska]] (Part of the [[Millard Public Schools]] district) was named after him. It opened in 2001. The Beadle Center, which houses the Department of Biochemistry at the [[University of Nebraska–Lincoln]], is also named after George Beadle.

==Personal life==
Beadle was married twice. By his first wife he had a son, David, who now lives at The Hague, the Netherlands.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} His second wife, [[Muriel Beadle|Muriel McClure]] (1915–1994), a well-known writer, was born in California.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=1994-02-22 |title=MURIEL BEADLE, FREE-LANCE WRITER, AUTHOR |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1994/02/22/muriel-beadle-free-lance-writer-author/ |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=[[Chicago Tribune]] |language=en-US}}</ref> Beadle's chief hobbies were rockclimbing, skiing, and gardening. He is credited with the first ascent of [[Mount Doonerak]] in Alaska.<ref name=Wood>Michael Wood and Colby Coombs, ''Alaska: A Climbing Guide'', The Mountaineers Books, 2002, page 40.</ref> He was a member of [[FarmHouse]] [[fraternity]] while at the University of Nebraska.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

Beadle died on June 9, 1989 at a retirement community in [[Pomona, California]] from complications of [[Alzheimer's disease]], aged 85.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/12/obituaries/george-w-beadle-85-geneticist-and-nobel-prize-winner-is-dead.html|title=George W. Beadle, 85, Geneticist And Nobel Prize Winner, Is Dead|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=June 12, 1989|accessdate=January 8, 2025}}</ref> He was an atheist.<ref>George Beadle, An Uncommon Farmer: The Emergence of Genetics in the 20th Century. CSHL Press. 2003. p. 273. {{ISBN|9780879696887}}. Beadle's views on this occasion were somewhat more tempered than David's characterization of him as a "vehement atheist," and from his earliest days "intolerant of religion and other forms of superstition."</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
*[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.BEADLEG Guide to the George Wells Beadle Papers 1908-1981] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]
*[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.OFCPRESBEADLE Guide to the University of Chicago Office of the President, Beadle Administration Records 1916-1968] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]
* {{Nobelprize}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box
 | before=[[Lawrence A. Kimpton]]
 | title=[[List of University of Chicago faculty#University Presidents|President of the University of Chicago]]
 | years=1961–1968
 | after=[[Edward H. Levi]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1951-1975}}
{{1958 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{University of Chicago presidents}}
{{Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science}}
{{Time Persons of the Year 1951–1975}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beadle, George}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1989 deaths]]
[[Category:American atheists]]
[[Category:American geneticists]]
[[Category:American Nobel laureates]]
[[Category:Stanford University School of Medicine faculty]]
[[Category:Cornell University alumni]]
[[Category:Modern synthesis (20th century)]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]]
[[Category:People from Wahoo, Nebraska]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
[[Category:Presidents of the University of Chicago]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research]]
[[Category:University of Chicago faculty]]
[[Category:University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni]]
[[Category:California Institute of Technology faculty]]
[[Category:Wesleyan University people]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Time Person of the Year]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science]]
[[Category:20th-century American people]]