A new and important theory on heredity was presented here at the New York Academy of Medicine by Dr. Alfred E. Mirsky, of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. Dr. Mirsky established that within a living animal cell, the genes–tiny bits of living matter that carry hereditary traits–are influenced by the living material surrounding them.
Although Dr. Mirsky did not say so, such a theory is intimately bound with the reasons for sudden and abnormal growth–such as cancer–of the cells, which are the microscopic building blocks of all living things. About two years ago, simultaneously with some workers in France, Dr. Mirsky discovered the chemical for which genetecists had been searching for 40 years. The substance was desoxyribonucleicsacid–DNA–and in an animal of a particular species every cell had it in unvarying quantity. DNA was then supposed to be part of the basic gene material.
The crux of Dr. Mirsky’s theory, that the cell cytoplasm–the material outside the nucleus–influenced the amount of a special protein, called residual protein, attached to the DNA in the cell, was backed by recent experiments.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
