| Emile Zuckerkandl is
considered by many to be one of the founders of the field
of molecular evolution. Born in Vienna, Austria in 1922, he
fled with his affluent Jewish family to Paris and Algiers
to escape Nazi persecution in 1938. After the war, Zuckerkandl
came to American and received his master's degree in physiology
from the University of Illinois in 1947. Upon returning to
Paris, he earned a Ph.D. in biology from the Sorbonne. In
1958, Zuckerkandl arranged a meeting with Linus Pauling to
inquire about research opportunities in the United States.
Pauling was apparently impressed enough to offer Zuckerkandl
a post-doctoral fellowship in his lab at Caltech. When he
arrived in Pasedena, one of Pauling's graduate students taught
Zuckerkandl chemistry techniques that allowed him to compare
the structures of hemoglobins from a wide variety of primates
and other taxa. Zuckerkandl and Pauling soon began analyzing
this information along with amino acid sequence data that
was increasingly becoming available. They noticed that the
amount of sequence variation in hemoglobins seemed to be directly
related presumed evolutionary relationships. Understanding
this relationship was to occupy the duo for the duration of
Zuckerkandl's 5-year fellowship. Their work ultimately resulted
in the formulation of the "molecular clock." This
notion was first articulated in a non-peer reviewed festschrift
for Albert Szent-Gyorgi and published in its mature form in
their 1965 paper, "Evolutionary Divergence and Convergence
of Proteins."
In 1965, Zuckerkandl returned to France to become a research
director at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique.
There, he founded the Research Center of Macromolecular Biology
and directed it for a decade. In the late-1970s, Zuckerkandl
returned to the United States to become President of the Linus
Pauling Institute. In 1992, he became President of the Institute
for Molecular Medicine (the successor to the Pauling Institute).
As exemplified by his work on the molecular clock, Zuckerkandl
has played a crucial role in the integration of molecular
biological theories and techniques into evolutionary biology.
He has also worked hard to provide venues for the products
of this marriage. Indeed, in 1971 Zuckerkandl founded the
Journal of Molecular Evolution and served as its editor-in-chief
until very recently.
Selected Bibliography:
- Zuckerkandl, E. and Pauling L., "Evolutionary divergence
and convergence in proteins," in V. Bryson and H.J.
Vogel (eds.), Evolving Genes and Proteins (New York: Academic
Press, 1965), pp. 97-166.
- Zuckerkandl E., and Pauling L., "Molecules as documents
of evolutionary history," J Theor Biol (1965), 8(2):357-66.
- Zuckerkandl E., Derancourt J., and Vogel H., "Mutational
trends and random processes in the evolution of informational
macromolecules," J Mol Biol (1971), 59(3):473-90.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Some aspects of protein evolution,"
Biochimie (1972), 54(9):1095-102.
- Zuckerkandl E., "The appearance of new structures
and functions in proteins during evolution," J Mol
Evol (1975), 7(1):1-57.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Evolutionary processes and evolutionary
noise at the molecular level. I.
Functional density in proteins," J Mol Evol (1976),
7(3):167-83.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Evolutionary processes and evolutionary
noise at the molecular level. II. A selectionist model for
random fixations in proteins," J Mol Evol (1976), 7(4):269-311.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Multilocus enzymes, gene regulation,
and genetic sufficiency," J Mol Evol (1978), 12(1):57-89.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Molecular evolution as a pathway
to man," Z Morphol Anthropol. (1978), 69(2):117-42.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Polite DNA: functional density and
functional compatibility in genomes," J Mol Evol (1986),
24(1-2):12-27.
- Zuckerkandl E., "On the molecular evolutionary clock,"
J Mol Evol (1987), 26(1-2):34-46.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Random walking. Can large insertions
and deletions between genes affect development?," J
Mol Evol (1990), 31(3):161-2.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Revisiting junk DNA," J Mol
Evol (1992), 34(3):259-71.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Can flies stand in for humans?,"
J Mol Evol (1993), 37(1):1-4.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Revisiting junk DNA," J Mol
Evol (1992), 34(3):259-71.
- Zuckerkandl E, and Hennig W., "Tracking heterochromatin,"
Chromosoma (1995), 104(2):75-83.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Junk DNA and sectorial gene repression,"
Gene (1997), 205(1-2):323-43.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Neutral and Nonneutral Mutations:
The Creative Mix-Evolution of Complexity in Gene Interaction
Systems," J Mol Evol (1997), 44(4):470.
- Zuckerkandl E., "The journal and its field: a case
of co-evolution," J Mol Evol. (1998), 47(3):236-7.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Sectorial gene repression in the
control of development," Gene (1999), 238(1):263-76.
- Zuckerkandl E., "Social constructionism, a lost cause,"
J. Mol Evol. (2000), 51(6):517-9.
This page was written by Jay Aronson on December 9, 2001
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