|
Published Papers
| Molecular Architecture and the Processes of Life. May 28, 1948. |
Page 13 [11]
|
Author: Linus Pauling
![Page 13 [11]](jessebootlecture-pg13-xl.jpg "Page 13 [11]")
Page 13 [11]
| Title: |
Molecular Architecture and the Processes of Life [13 of 15] |
| Creator: |
Pauling, Linus, 1901- |
| Publisher: |
Nature. |
| Date: |
1948-05-28 |
| Subject: |
Molecular structure
|
| Description: |
Nature, vol. 248. Original typescript. |
| Type: |
Text |
| Format: |
text/plain |
| Language: |
en |
| Identifier: |
jessebootlecture-pg13.jpg |
| Source: |
Master scanned with Epson GT-10000+ flatbed scanner at 600 dpi. |
| Rights: |
http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/copyright.html |
| Full Text: |
Evidence supporting the idea of the existence of mutually complement-
ary structures in living organisms is provided by reported experimental
results. The late Professor F. R. Lillie of the University of Chicago found
that there is contained in the gelatinous coats of eggs of the sea-urchin and
other marine animals a material, called fertilizin, that has the property of
agglutinating the sperm of the same species of animal.ll Thus the animals
of this organism produce two substances, fertilizin and the material in the
outside of the sperm, that have the power of combining with one another,
and presumably are mutually complementary in structure. Aiy colleague
Professor Albert Tyler, at the California Institute of Technology, has also
obtained from the interior of the egg of sea-urchins a substance, antifertilizin,
that has the property of combining specifically with the fertilizin that is
obtained from the gelatinous coat of the same eggs'. Antifertilizin has the
power to agglutinate the egg from the interior of which it can be obtained, in
the same way that an antibody specific to cells of a particular sort is able to
agglutinate these cells. The presence of this pair of complementary substances
in the same cell suggests strongly that other such pairs may be present, and
that the presence of pairs of complementary substances may indeed be of
fundamental importance to life.
Professor Tyler has in fact found that there is present in the blood
serum and in the liver of the Gila monster a substance that is able to combine
with the toxic substance present in the venom secreted by this reptile. He has
suggested that the poisonous substance, venom, and its complementary
substance, antivenin, in combination, are produced by an organ, probably
the liver, and are liberated into the blood stream ; and that the venom gland
then effects a separation of the t,N o, the venom accumulating in the gland and
the antivenin being released into the blood stream. Professor Tyler has
summarized the significance of these observations in the following words
" The view that cells are made up of constituents that bear the same
sort of relation to one another as antigen and antibody leads to the
inference that their origin is the result of the operation of the same kind
of processes as are involved in antibody formation. For the formation of
immune antibodies there is now fairly general acceptance of the views of
Breinl and Haurotivitz (5), Alexander (6), and Mudd (7) which have been
|
|
