The True History of Fertility Factor F

Esther & Luca

At the request of Stanford University's Department of Medical Microbiology and Genetics, Esther Lederberg recounted the history of fertility factor F in 1993. A number of different draft versions have been found, which differ slightly from each other. The differences center around Dr. Lederberg's assumptions about what the audience might already know about the history of the field. Thus, all the versions effectively say the same thing.

All the versions are presented to the reader; thus, the reader can decide what the historical issues were.

As a historical note, it is of some importance to know the time sequence of the relevant published papers, which establishes the priority of Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg's "Fertility factor" ('F')1 over William Hayes' "Sex factor" ('F' ?)2.
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1  "Sex compatibility in E. coli, , Lederberg, J., L. L. Cavalli, and E. M. Lederberg, 1952 Genetics, 37:720-730
2  "Observations on a transmissible agent determining sexual differentiation in Bacterium coli", Hayes, W., 1953,
     J. Gen. Microbiol., 8:72-88


Click to see 7 questions

Esther's response

Co-researcher Luigi Cavalli-Sforza Remembers

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