A Guide to the Genetics Collections at the APS
Major Collections

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Milislav Demerec Papers

b. Jan. 11, 1895, Kostajnica, Austria-Hungary (now Yugoslavia). d. April 12, 1966, Cold Spring Habor, N.Y. Married Mary A. Ziegler, 1921. Children, Rada D. (Dyson-Hudson); Zlata D. (Hartman); 5 grandchildren. Naturalized U.S. citizen, 1931. Grad., Cell. Agriculture, Kricevci, 1916. Adjunct, Kricevci Expt. Sta., 1916-18. Ph.D., Cornell U., 1923. Resident investigator, Dept. of Genetics, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Cold Spring Harbor, 1923-60; asst. director, 1936-41; acting dir., 1941-43; dir., 1943-60. Director, Long Island Biological Laboratory, 1941-60. Senior staff memb., Brookhaven Natl. Lab., Dept. Biol., 1960-65. Research professor, C.W. Post Cell. (Long Island U.), 1965-66. Research assoc., Columbia U., 1943-65. Visit. prof., Rockefeller Inst., 1958-60.

BIOG.
B. Glass, Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol., 31:xxi-xxii (1966). R.P. Wagner, Genetics, 56:s21 (1967). A.D. Hershey. Carn. Inst. Wash. Ybk+ 65:558 (1965-66). B. Glass, Biog. Mem. Natl. Acad. Sci., 42:1-27 (1971). McGraw-Hill Mod. Men of Sci., 1:135-36.Scienziatie Technol. Contemp., 1:303-04. McGraw-Hill Mod. Sci. Eng., 1:283-84. Amer. Men of Sci., 11:1184. Who Was Who in Amer., 155. T. Dobzhansky et al. Advances in Genetics, 16:xv-xl, 23-26, 349-61 (1971). Bruce Wallace, Genetics, 67:1-3 (1971). Margaret J. Miller, Mendel Newsletter, 16:1-4 (1978).

BIBLIOG.
Complete bibliog. in Biog. Mem. Natl. Acad. Sci., (1971).

SCIENTIFIC OFFICES.
Council, 6th Intnatl. Congr. Genetics, 1932; v. pres., 7th Intnatl. Congr. Genetics, 1939; member Perm. Intnatl. Corn. ofIntnatl. Congr. Genetics, 1939-53; chmn., Com. on Transport., 8th Intnatl. Congr. Genetics, 1948; memb. Org. Com. and Program Com., 10th Intnatl. Congr. Genetics, 1958. Genetics Sec. Amer., sec.-treas., 1935-38; v. pres., 1938; pres., 1939. Amer. Sec. Naturalists, treas., 1933-35; v. pres., 1947; pres., 1954. Chmn. US Natl. Com. of IUBS. Memb., Com. on Biol. Effects of Atomic Radiation, Genetics Panel (NAS), 1954-60. Chmn. Sect. Zool. & Anat., NAS, 1958-61.

HONORS AND AWARDS.
LL.D., Sc.D., D. honoris causa, U. Zagreb. Order of St. Sava, Jugoslavia, 1935. Kimber Gold Medal and Award, Natl. Acad. Sci., 1962. Member, Natl. Acad. Sci., 1946; Amer. Philos. Sec., 1952; Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci., 1959; Roy. Danish Acad. Sci. & Letters; Brit. Genet. Sec.; Acad. Sci. Jugoslavia; Genetics Sec. Japan; Sec. Biol., Santiago (Chile); Fac. Med., U. Chile.

BOOKS.
The Drosophila Guide (with B.P. Kaufmann), 1940; 8th ed., 1969.

EDITORIAL WORK.
Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol., 1948-59. Founder and editor, Drosophila Information Service, 1934. Editor, The Biology of Drosophila, 1950. Founder and editor, Advances in Genetics, 9 vols. 1947-58.

THE DEMEREC PAPERS.
19 boxes, ca. 9,500 items, 1919-66; 56 vols. research notes. See Margaret Miller, Mendel Newsletter, 16:1-4 (1978). Table of Contents, 18 pp.

Upon coming to the United States in 1918, Milislav Demerec started his graduate study at Cornell University under the direction of R.A. Emerson, in maize genetics. From an interest in variegated genetic conditions in maize, he turned to explore the nature of variegated and mosaic characters in other species of plants, especially delphiniums; and he discovered mosaic characters and frequently mutating genes in Drosophila virilis. His studies of the effects upon mutation rates of such environmental agents as temperature and X-rays, and of internal conditions such as sex and genetic strain, were classic. In the 1930s Demerec shifted his research to problems of radiation induced mutations. Using Drosophila melanogaster, he examined the question of whether all X-ray-induced lethals are actually small chromosome deficiencies; and he determined the frequency of cell-lethal mutations, i.e. mutations lethal to a single cell even when surrounded by normal tissues. He analyzed successfully the differences in spontaneous mutation rates of different stocks of D. melanogaster and established the existence of mutator genes. His interest in unstable genes led to an exploration of the "position effects" of genes when shifted from euchromatic to heterochromatic portions of the chromosomes.

During World War II, Demerec again shifted his research, this time to bacteria (first, Escherichia coli, later Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhimurium). Most important were the studies of those mutations induced in bacteria that confer upon the bacteria specific kinds of drug resistance to penicillin, aureomycin, or streptomycin. Not reported until after the war was the success at Cold Spring Harbor in attaining a mutant strain of Penicillium that would grow abundantly when submerged in nutrient fluid, instead of being restricted to growth on the surface. This success multiplied enormously the production of penicillin from a given amount of nutrient. In the 1950s, Demerec's research detected the mutagenic action upon bacteria of many salts, organic chemicals, and carcinogens. The fine structure of the gene and the linkage relations of the genes in Salmonella typhimurium was another classic study carried forward largely with the collaboration of his son-in-law Philip Hartman and his daughter Zlata.

Demerec's administrative work at Cold Spring Harbor was outstanding. In 1941 he became Director of the Biological Laboratory of the Long Island Biological Association, which occupied an acreage adjoining the Carnegie Institution's Department of Genetics. When he became also Director of the latter, a year later, he worked energetically toward an ever closer collaboration between the two similar institutions, and succeeded in making of them a single center devoted to genetical research. The Biological Laboratory had ample grounds and buildings for summer investigators, and held the annual Cold Spring Harbor Symposia. These meetings attracted an ever wider circle of investigators from all over the world and became seminal in their surveys of advances in genetics and cytogenetics, population genetics and evolution, biochemistry and molecular biology. Under such visiting investigators as Salvador Luria and Max Delbrück, bacterial and subsequently bacteriophage genetics became recognized fields of genetics, and summer courses were started in order to train research workers in the techniques necessary to exploit the new branches of genetics. Cold Spring Harbor rapidly became a Mecca for geneticists from all over the world, and somehow, even when science was not funded so munificently as after the establishment of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, Demerec found what was needed to keep the Cold Spring Harbor Lab growing in staff and reputation, and constantly breaking new ground.

Demerec personally provided the stimulus for much of the modern advance in genetics by means of the publications he founded and edited. There was not only the incredibly influential series of Cold Spring Harbor Symposia, but also such aids to students and research workers as the Drosophila Guide (eight editions of which were prepared between 1940 and 1969), The Biology of Drosophila, the indispensable Advances in Genetics series, and the Drosophila Information Service (DIS), a prototype of the highly useful newsletters that enable investigators using a particular organism to exchange unpublished information, list available genetic stocks, and describe new technical aids and equipment. Typical of Demerec's public spirit in science was his establishment of the first Drosophila stock center in the world, to supply experimental stocks free to scientists anywhere, and likewise the support he gave to Calvin Bridges in the latter's herculean task of making, at Cold Spring Harbor, the accurate maps of Drosophila melanogaster's giant banded salivary gland chromosomes.

When Demerec retired from office as Director and Senior Investigator at Cold Spring Harbor, he hoped to continue research there in an emeritus capacity. In this expectation he was disappointed, so moved his research activity to the Brookhaven National Laboratory. There he continued to study problems of mutation, transduction by phage, and linkage in Salmonella. Particularly significant was his discovery of the clustering in the bacterial chromosome of functionally related genes, and also of the genetic homologies between E. coli and Salmonella. Upon reaching a statutory age limit at Brookhaven, he made arrangements to move his research program once more, this time to C. W. Post College, which constructed a fine new laboratory for his occupancy. Demerec's death of a heart attack occurred before he could resume work in the new quarters.

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