Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Holding Hands with Bacteria pp 25–44Cite as

Fruitful Years. What Alice Found in the Microbes

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 348 Accesses

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science ((BRIESFHISTCHEM))

Abstract

Marjory Stephenson and Margaret Whetham were not the only workers in Hopkins’ laboratory involved with microorganisms. In 1921, Hopkins accepted a young graduate student with a good knowledge of microbiology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Today called mostly Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

  2. 2.

    Quastel never mentioned in his personal recollections [2, 3] whether Stephenson influenced him in his choice of research themes, but we must consider (as will be shown later) that their farewell apparently was not harmonious.

  3. 3.

    Synonym for “washed cell” technique.

  4. 4.

    The relation of Stephenson and Quastel has been sometimes misinterpreted as if Quastel would be leading figure in their cooperation. For instance, Kohler mentions that “she was greatly influenced by Juda Quastel, a young organic chemist (sic!)…” [5]. Holmes even states [6, p. 45] that Stephenson was “introduced to the metabolism of bacteria in 1924 by Juda Quastel” before “she had become the international leader in that field”.

  5. 5.

    Cope brought up [8] that in 1926 Stephenson spent 3 months at the University of Manchester with the bacteriologist W.C. Topley (1886–1944); here she learned from Graham S. Wilson (1895–1987) to count viable cells. “With this method she was able to counter the criticism that her ‘resting’ cells were in fact dead”.

  6. 6.

    Another article [12], where Stephenson and the Needhams jokingly report about their participation in the International Congress of Physiology in Stockholm in 1926 is mentioned in Chap. 4.

  7. 7.

    Apparently, as the title of the paper suggests, they had planned a series of publications.

  8. 8.

    More on this will be presented in the next chapter.

  9. 9.

    See Fletcher’s letter offering Stephenson appointment to the scientific staff of the MRC, 18 March 1929, and Stephenson's answer to Fletcher, 19 March 1929; MRC Archives P.F. 216.

  10. 10.

    More on this will be presented in the next chapter.

  11. 11.

    Kieselguhr is a clay formed from the fossilized shells of microscopic unicellular aquatic plants and has been often used for filtration in laboratories and industry. Modern commercial sources are marketed under the name Celite.

  12. 12.

    Leonard Hubert Stickland (1905-?), worked with Stephenson 1928–1934.

  13. 13.

    The isolation of the methane producing bacteria by the single-cell technique was quite tricky and Stephenson was not able to identify it as it was most probably contaminated by another sulphate reducing bacteria [26, p. 332].

  14. 14.

    Stephenson’s pupil Woods proved in 1936 that the enzymic reaction was reversible [29].

    Fig. 3.5
    figure 5

    The Brighter Biochemistry announced in 1925 (p. 62) under the heading “Books Not Yet Received” also the fictitious edition of A TREATISE ON BACTERIAL LIFE by “Dame Marjory Stephenson”. The joke testifies the attention Stephenson’s research had raised among her colleagues. Quastel is nicknamed here as “Pastel”

    Full size image
  15. 15.

    Formic hydrogenlyase, catalysing the decomposition of formic acid into carbon dioxide and molecular hydrogen is made up of two enzymes: (a) formate dehydrogenase which catalyses formate + NAD+ → CO2 + NADH; (b) hydrogen dehydrogenase which catalyses H2 + NAD+ → H+ + NADH (according to [32], p. 710).

  16. 16.

    The problem matter of adaptation was discussed, for instance, in 1956 by Kluyver, and Van Niel [33], see especially. Chap. 4, pp. 93–129 entitled Life’s Flexibility; Microbial Adaptation. For early history of adaptation studies in microorganisms see [34, 35], where the reader can find much additional literature.

  17. 17.

    Henning Karström (1899–1969) belonged to the pioneers of the Finnish biochemistry. He was close collaborator of the Nobel Prize winner A. Virtanen (1895–1973).

  18. 18.

    For instance Dienert found in 1900 already [39] that adaptive “galactozymase” may be produced in non-growing yeast.

  19. 19.

    John Yudkin (1910–1995), British physiologist and nutritionist. Since 1931, he worked on his Ph.D. thesis on adaptive enzymes under Stephenson’s supervision. In 1945, shortly after the end of the war John Yudkin was elected to the Chair of Physiology at King’s College of Household and Social Science in London. In 1954 the Department of Nutrition was officially opened at the University of London and Yudkin’s Chair was converted into a Professorship of Nutrition [40, 41].

  20. 20.

    Donald Deveraux Woods (1912–1964), British microbiologist. In 1939 Woods started to work with Paul Fildes at the MRC Unit for Medical Bacteriology in London, where he discovered the antagonistic action of p-aminobenzoic acid against the antibacterial action of sulphonamides. This accomplishment will be treated in the next chapter. In 1955 he became professor of chemical microbiology at the University of Oxford [44].

  21. 21.

    Ernest Frederick Gale (1914–2005), British microbiologist. After Stephenson’s death in 1948, he became Director of the MRC Unit for Chemical Microbiology in Cambridge. In 1960 he was appointed professor of chemical microbiology at Cambridge University [45].

  22. 22.

    Today called Aerobacter aerogenes. Yudkin investigated these enzymes also in other bacterial species.

  23. 23.

    Glucozymase and galactozymase are obsolete historical names of enzymes. Glucozymase represented a complex of glycolitic enzymes participating in the glycolytic pathway: hexokinase, glucose phosphate isomerase and phosphofructokinase; galactozymase was the historical name for galactokinase.

  24. 24.

    Highlighted by SŠ.

  25. 25.

    Jacques Lucien Monod (1910–1976), French biologist, who jointly with François Jacob (1920–2013) postulated the repressor model of regulation of gene activity, which exerted a tremendous impact on the further development of molecular biology. In 1965, they were awarded the Nobel Prize together with André Lwoff “for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis”.

References

  1. MacIntosh FC, Sourkes TL (1990) Juda Hirsch Quastel. 2 October 1899–15 October 1987. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 36:380–418

    Google Scholar 

  2. Quastel JH (1974) Fifty years of biochemistry. A personal account. Can J Biochem 52:71–82

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Quastel JH (1983) A short autobiography. In: Semenza G (ed) Selected topics in the history of biochemistry: personal recollections I. (Comprehensive Biochemistry vol 35). Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, pp 129–187

    Google Scholar 

  4. Quastel JH, Whetham MD (1924) The equilibria existing between succinic, fumaric and malic acids on the presence of resting bacteria. Biochem J 18:519–534

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kohler RE (1981) Stephenson, Marjory. Dictionary of scientific biographies 18(II):851–860

    Google Scholar 

  6. Holmes FL (1993) Hans Krebs, Volume 2: Architect of intermediary metabolism, 1933–1937. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York

    Google Scholar 

  7. Quastel JH, Stephenson M, Whetham MD (1925) Some reactions of resting bacteria in relation to anaerobic growth. Biochem J 19:304–317

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Cope J (2014) Marjory Stephenson: 1920s. http://www.bioc.cam.ac.uk/about/history/marjory-stephenson/1920s. Accessed 23 Nov, 2015

  9. Quastel JH, Stephenson M (1925) Further observations on the anaerobic growth of bacteria. Biochem J 19:660–666

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Quastel JH (1925) Brighter Biochemistry 3:13

    Google Scholar 

  11. Stephenson M (1927) Down the microscope and what Alice found there. Brighter Biochemistry 5:36–39

    Google Scholar 

  12. Stephenson M, Needham DM, Needham J (1926) Visit to the 12th International Congress of Physiology at Stockholm. Brighter Biochemistry 4:21–24

    Google Scholar 

  13. Quastel JH, Stephenson M (1926) Experiments on strict anaerobes. 1. The relationship of B. sporogenes to oxygen. Biochem J 20:1125–1137

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Quastel JH, Wooldridge WR (1928) Some properties of the dehydrogenating enzymes of bacteria. Biochem J 22:689–702

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Landsborough Thomson A (1975) Half a century of medical research, vol 2. The programme of the Medical Research Council. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London

    Google Scholar 

  16. Kohler RE (1985) Innovation in normal science. Bacterial physiology. Isis 76:162–181

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Stephenson M (1939) Bacterial Metabolism, 2nd edn. Longmans, Green, London-New York-Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  18. Stephenson M (1928) On lactic dehydrogenase. A cell-free enzyme preparation obtained from bacteria. Biochem J 22:605–614

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Booth VH, Green DE (1938) A wet-crushing mill for micro-organisms. Biochem J 32:855–861

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Still JL (1940) Alcohol enzyme of Bact. coli. Biochem J 34:1177–1182

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Gale EF (1939) Formic dehydrogenase of Bacterium coli: its inactivation by oxygen and its protection in the bacterial cell. Biochem J 33:1012–1027

    Google Scholar 

  22. Gale EF (1940) Enzymes concerned in the primary utilization of amino acids by bacteria. Bacteriological Reviews 4:135–176

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Woods DD (1950) Marjory Stephenson 1885–1948. Biochem J 46:376–383

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Stephenson M, Stickland LH (1931) Hydrogenase: a bacterial enzyme activating molecular hydrogen. Biochem J 25:205–214

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Stephenson M, Stickland LH (1931) Hydrogenase II. The reduction of sulphate to sulphide by molecular hydrogen. Biochem J 25:215–220

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Elsden SR, Pirie NW (1949) Marjory Stephenson 1885–1948. J Gen Microbiol 3:329–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Stephenson M, Stickland LH (1933) Hydrogenase III. The bacterial formation of methane by the reduction of one-carbon compounds by molecular hydrogen. Biochem J 27:1517–1527

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Stickland LH (1929) The bacterial decomposition of formic acid. Biochem J 23:1187–1198

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Woods DD (1936) Hydrogenlyases. IV. The synthesis of formic acid by bacteria. Biochem J 30:515–527

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Stephenson M, Stickland LH (1932) Hydrogenlyases. Bacterial enzymes liberating molecular hydrogen. Biochem J 26:712–724

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Stephenson M, Stickland LH (1933) Hydrogenlyases. Further experiments on the formation of formic hydrogenlyase by Bact. coli. Biochem J 27:1528–1532

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Barnett JA (2004) A history of research on yeasts 7: enzymic adaptation and regulation. Yeast. doi:10.1002/yea.1113

    Google Scholar 

  33. Kluyver AJ, van Niel CB (1956) The Microbe’s Contribution to Biology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  34. Gaudillière J-P (1992) J. Monod, S. Spiegelman et l’adaptation enzymatique. Programmes de recherche, cultures locales et traditions disciplinaires. Hist Philos Life Sci 14:23–71

    Google Scholar 

  35. Štrbáňová S (1997) Enzyme adaptation, the road to its understanding: early theoretical explanation. In: Hoppe B (ed) Biology integrating scientific fundamentals. Contributions to history of interrelations between biology, chemistry and physics from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Algorismus 21:260–285

    Google Scholar 

  36. Hopkins FG (1913) Section I, Physiology. opening address by F. Gowland Hopkins, F.R.S., President of the section. The dynamic side of biochemistry. Nat 92:213–223

    Google Scholar 

  37. Karström H (1930) Über die Enzymbildung in Bakterien und über einige physiologische Eigenschaften der untersuchten Bakterienarten. Thesis University Helsingfors, Helsingfors

    Google Scholar 

  38. Karström H (1938) Enzymatische Adaption bei Mikroorganismen. Ergebnisse der Enzymforschung 7:350–376

    Google Scholar 

  39. Dienert F (1900) Sur la fermentation du galactose et sur l’accoutumance des levures à ce sucre. Annales de l’Institut Pasteur 14:139–189

    Google Scholar 

  40. Yudkin MD, John Yudkin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Yudkin. Accessed 1 May 2014

  41. Davies L (1995) Obituary: John Yudkin. The Independent, 25 July 1995. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-john-yudkin-1593131.html. Accessed 15 Aug 2013

  42. Yudkin MD (2014) Personal communication

    Google Scholar 

  43. Yudkin J (1932) Hydrogenlyases. Some factors concerned in the production of the enzymes. Biochem J 26:1859–1871

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Gale EF, Fildes P (1965) Donald Deveraux Woods. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 11:202–219

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Reynolds PE (2007) Ernest frederick gale. 15 July 1914–7 March 2005. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 53:143–161

    Google Scholar 

  46. Stephenson M, Yudkin J (1936) Galactozymase considered as an adaptive enzyme. Biochem J 30:506–514

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Stephenson M, Gale EF (1937) Factors influencing bacterial deamination. I. The deamination of glycine, dl-alanine and l-glutamic acid by Bacterium coli. Biochem J 31:1316–1322

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Stephenson M, Gale EF (1937) The adaptibility of glucozymase and galactozymase in Bacterium coli. Biochem J 31:1311–1315

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Stephenson M (1949) Bacterial Metabolism, 3rd edn. Longmans, Green, London-New York-Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  50. Stephenson M (1937) The economy of the bacterial cell. In: Needham J, Green DE (eds) Perspectives in biochemistry: thirty-one essays presented to Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins by past and present members of his laboratory. The University Press, Cambridge, pp 91–98

    Google Scholar 

  51. Yudkin J (1938) Enzyme variations in micro-organisms. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 13:93–106

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Monod J (1965) From enzymatic adaptation to allosteric transitions—Nobel lecture, December 11, 1965. http://130.237.143.81/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1965/monod-lecture.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2013

  53. Lwoff AM (1977) Jacques Lucien Monod, 9 February 1910–31 May 1976. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 23:384–412

    Google Scholar 

  54. Gale EF (1938) Factors influencing bacterial deamination. III. Aspartase II: its occurrence in and extraction from Bacterium coli and its activation by adenosine and related compounds. Biochem J 32:1583–1599

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  55. Gale EF, Stephenson M (1938) Factors influencing bacterial deamination. II. Factors influencing the activity of dl-serine deaminase in Bacterium coli. Biochem J 32:392–404

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  56. Needham DM (1949) Dr. Marjory Stephenson, M.B.E., F.R.S. Nature 163:201–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Stephenson M, Trim AR (1938) The metabolism of adenine compounds by Bact. coli. Biochem J 32:1740–1751

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

    Soňa Štrbáňová

Authors
  1. Soňa Štrbáňová
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Soňa Štrbáňová .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Štrbáňová, S. (2016). Fruitful Years. What Alice Found in the Microbes. In: Holding Hands with Bacteria. SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49736-4_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation