Background
Tatum was born in Boulder, Colorado, in December, 1909. He was one of three children of Arthur Lawrie Tatum, a noted physiologist, and Mabel Webb, one of the first women graduates of the University of Colorado.
biochemist geneticist scientist
Tatum was born in Boulder, Colorado, in December, 1909. He was one of three children of Arthur Lawrie Tatum, a noted physiologist, and Mabel Webb, one of the first women graduates of the University of Colorado.
Tatum entered the University of Chicago in 1927 and transferred to the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1929, where he received a B. A. degree in 1931 majoring in chemistry. His move to Wisconsin was prompted by his father's appointment there as chair of the physiology department. In 1932, Tatum received his master's degree in microbiology, and in 1934 his Ph. D. , under the direction of professors Edwin B. Fred (later president of the University of Wisconsin) and William H. Peterson, a noted biochemist.
He was the recipient of several honorary degrees.
After graduation, Tatum remained at the University of Wisconsin as a research assistant in biology. A fellowship from the General Education Board (1936 - 1937) enabled him to visit Fritz Kogl at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Returning to the United States in 1937 as a research associate at Stanford University, Tatum teamed up with Dr. George Wells Beadle, then professor at Stanford University and subsequently chairman of the division of biology at California Institute of Technology.
Between 1937 and 1941, Tatum was engaged in studies at Stanford on the genetic development of eye pigment in Drosophila melanogaster (a fruit fly). His research progressed to the nutritional requirements and metabolic activity of insects, primarily Drosophila. In 1940, Tatum and Beadle undertook a collaborative venture that would greatly influence the future of genetics. Using X rays to produce mutant strains of the pink bread mold Neurspora crassa, they studied the spores' sexual reproduction, isolating a spore that would grow only when given vitamin B6 (pyridoxine). Tatum and Beadle concluded that an X ray-damaged gene was responsible for the spore's inability to produce the enzyme necessary for B6 production. Further, the damaged gene was transmitted to descendants in the proper Mendelian ratio. The result of this research was the first assertion of what would later be known as the "one gene, one enzyme" theory, and was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 1941, the same year that Tatum was promoted to assistant professor at Stanford.
By the end of World War II, the team of Beadle and Tatum had achieved worldwide renown. Tatum left Stanford in 1945 to accept a position as associate professor of biology at Yale University, where he continued studies on the effect of biochemical mutations on nutritional deficiencies of the bacterium Escherichia coli. He was promoted to professor of microbiology the following year.
In 1946, Tatum, together with Joshua Lederberg, a bright young medical student on leave from Columbia University (and later head of genetics at Stanford's medical school and president of Rockefeller University), enlarged their study of nutritional mutants of the Escherichia coli bacterial strain K12. Their results supported Tatum's hypothesis that bacteria have genes and that those genes are exchanged by sexual reproduction, characteristics that were thought to exist only in higher organisms.
Tatum left Yale in 1948 to return to Stanford, where in 1956 he was appointed head of a new department of biochemistry. In 1957, he moved to New York City to become a professor at the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research (now Rockefeller University), where he continued his studies on how genes determine the characteristics of living organisms.
He also served on several research and scientific advisory committees. In 1959, Tatum testified before a congressional committee on behalf of the National Science Foundation. He served as president and vice-president of the Scientist's Institute for Public Information, where his brother Howard J. Tatum, an eminent gynecologist and obstetrician, held a position. Tatum was the first chairman of the board of trustees of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory of Quantitative Biology in Long Island, N. Y. He also served on the board of directors of Mead Johnson and as consultant in microbiology for Merck and Company. For the National Research Council, Tatum served on many groups connected with biological and medical research. Tatum's impressive publication record includes numerous scientific research articles. He was elected to the editorial board of Science, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, Annual Reviews, Genetics, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He was an enthusiastic advocate of fellowships and support for younger people entering the scientific arena, and in particular biochemistry.
Tatum died of heart failure in New York City.
Quotations:
“As has repeatedly been stated, the underlying hypothesis, which in a number of cases has been supported by direct experimental evidence, is that each gene controls the production, function, and specificity of a particular enzyme. ”
“In microbiology the roles of mutation and selection in evolution are coming to be better understood through the use of bacterial cultures of mutant strains. ”
“That the primary effect of gene mutation may be as simple as the substitution of a single amino acid by another and may lead to profound secondary changes in protein structure and properties has recently been strongly indicated by the work of Ingram on hemoglobin. ”
He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1952), and American Philosophical Society. He served as president of the Harvey Society (1964 - 1965).
Tatum was a heavy smoker and suffered from chronic emphysema.
Tatum first married June Alton on 28 June 1934. The couple had two daughters, Margaret and Barbara. They divorced sometime in 1956.
On 16 December 1956, Tatum married Viola Kanter. They remained married until her death on 21 April 1974. Later that year, he tied the knot for the third time and married Elsie Bergland. They remained married until his death shortly after.