| RefNo | EC/1978/25 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XX, 114 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Pateman, John Arthur Joseph: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1977 |
| Description | Citation typed |
| Citation | Distinguished for his work in fungal genetics. Working with Neurospora crassa, he was a co-discoverer of allelic complementation in enzyme formation and, through his studies of reverse mutations in the structural gene for glutamate dehydrogenase, provided some of first examples in any organism of mutations causing changes in enzyme properties. In an entirely different area, his experiments on selection for ascospore size in the same fungus still stand among the best analyses of fungal polygenic variation. He was the first, with Cove, to use Aspergillus nidulans for studies of the genetic control of enzyme synthesis. He founded in Cambridge, and later extended to Australia and Glasgow, a flourishing group of Aspergillus workers in which he continues to play a leading part. Among the important concepts to emerge from this work have been the involvement of an enzyme (nitrate reductase) in the regulation of its own synthesis, the importance of positive controls of gene expression, the existence of hierarchies of controls of different degrees of specificity, and the role of NADP-specific glutamate dehydrogenase in mediating nitrogen catabolite repression. Many new insights into the detailed functions of particular enzymes and uptake systems in nitrogen nutrition have been obtained. In recent years he has also directed interesting work on enzymic differentiation in cultured animal cells. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA4642 | Pateman; John Arthur Joseph (1926 - 2011) | 1926 - 2011 |