| RefNo | EC/1989/44 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XXII, 188 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Lewis, Edward Butts: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1984 |
| Description | Certificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed |
| Citation | E B Lewis of the California Institute of Technology is the leading Drosophila geneticist alive today. This is partly because of the sophistication of his observations, but even more because he has chosen a problem of central importance to work on. The bithorax complex (BX-C), which he has studies continuously since the 1940s, has emerged as a complex genetic locus of deep interest; it is the executive function responsible for the diversification of most of the insect segments. The BX-C is a key to solving a profound and longstanding question in developmental biology: how is genetic information used to construct the body pattern? Lewis' description of the BX-C of the Drosophila genome and his model for the mode of action and wildtype function of its genetic elements are a great achievement.
By the 1960s Lewis had dissected that part of the complex responsible for the development of pattern in the thorax and the first abdominal segment. He proposed that the genetic elements work in combination to direct parts of the developing fly so that they each follow different pathways. The observations are based on a collection of mutations, painstakingly built up by Lewis, their phenotypes studies alone or in combination.
In 1978, in his superb paper in Nature, Lewis described the larval phenotypes of various genetic deficiencies and elaborated his model, which explained that the elements of the BX-C are responsible for all the abdominal segments and work according to two simple rules. First, the elements of the BX-C are arranged in the chromosome in the same order as the parts of the body they are responsible for. Second, the more posterior the segment in the body, the more elements function to determine its pattern. Molecular work on the BX-c which is now underway in the laboratory of David Hogness (in collaboration with Lewis) has shown that the BX-C is some 300 kb of DNA, and that the elements are ordered as Lewis proposed.
Lewis has worked essentially single handed on this project for 40 years which, until recently, awakened little interest in the genetics community. This is partly because his papers are deep but also because they are infrequent, intricate and difficult. All his working life he has followed and fostered the best traditions of Drosophila genetics and willingly offered stocks and advice to other scientists at home and abroad. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA4735 | Lewis; Edward Butts (1918 - 2004) | 1918 - 2004 |