J. F. Stauffer

Bio: J. F. Stauffer is an academic researcher from University of Wisconsin-Madison. The author has contributed to research in topics: Penicillium chrysogenum & Respiration. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 8 publications receiving 1278 citations.

Venturia inaequalis (cke.) wint. vii. induction of mutants for studies on genetics, nutrition, and pathogenicity

Abstract: THE EARLIER PAPERS of this series (Keitt and Langford, 1941; Keitt et al., 1943; Shay and Keitt, 1945; Keitt et al., 1948) were concerned chiefly with inheritance of pathogenicity and with the development of materials, methods, and points of view that might open the way to further investigations of this and other basic problems of infectious disease. Venturia inaequalis (Cke.) Wint. was shown to have adaptations similar to those of the 8-spored Neurosporas for related genetic and physiologic studies, and therefore to afford unusually favorable materials for our purposes. This earlier work has been reviewed and the adaptations of materials and methods developed in it have been discussed (Keitt, 1952). As the work on inheritance of pathogenicity progressed, the program was broadened to include correlated studies on the genetics, nutrition, and pathogenicity of this fungus. Two papers concerned with aspects of its nutrition have been published (Leben and Keitt, 1948; Pelletier and Keitt, 1954). Whereas our earlier work was done with wildtype lines of the fungus and with mutants that developed spontaneously in cultures in vitro, the later studies have been increasingly concerned with induced mutants. The accomplishments of Beadle and associates (Beadle, 1945a, b) and others (see Catcheside, 1951) in genetic and physiologic studies with induced biochemical mutants of Neurospora suggested application of similar techniques to Venturia. If a large variety of biochemical miutants of this pathogen could be induced the fungus could be manipulated through a wide spectrum of variability, and the genetic and nutritional changes could be studied in relation to pathogenicity (cf. Keitt, 1954). Many biochemical and other mutants of V. inaequalis have now been induced and substantial progress has been made in studies on their genetics, nutrition, and pathogenicity. Preliminary reports on the progress of this work have been made (Boone, 1949, 1951; Boone and Keitt, 1949, 1952; Boone et. al., 1954; Keitt and Boone, 1954). The

Distribution of Lysine Pathways Among Fungi: Evolutionary Implications

Abstract: With the aid of diagnostic radiocarbon tracers, lysine synthesis was studied in representatives of 21 orders of basidiomycetes, ascomycetes, and phycomycetes. The labeling pattern corresponding to the α-aminoadipic acid-lysine path was given by all basidiomycetes and ascomycetes and by those phycomycetes which produce non-flagellate or posteriorly uniflagellate spores. The pattern characteristic of the α,e-diaminopimelic acid-lysine path was shown by those phycomycetes which produce anteriorly uniflagellate or biflagellate spores. The remarkable consistency of the distribution of the two lysine paths suggests that (a) they did not arise sporadically; (b) their distribution pattern was not disturbed by genetic exchange; and (c) there is a substantial evolutionary gap in organisms differing in path of lysine synthesis. Neither lysine path is thought to have emerged in an organism possessing the other. The α,e-diaminopimelic acid path may be the more ancient. A common evolutionary precursor of organisms havi...

Quantitative Nitroblue Tetrazolium Test in Chronic Granulomatous Disease

Abstract: Chronic granulomatous disease is an X-linked defect in the killing of certain bacteria by peripheral blood granulocytes and may be detected with the nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) test. The r...