Bacterial chemotaxis: the early years of molecular studies

Abstract

This review focuses on the early years of molecular studies of bacterial chemotaxis and motility, beginning in the 1960s with Julius Adler's pioneering work. It describes key observations that established the field and made bacterial chemotaxis a paradigm for the molecular understanding of biological signaling. Consideration of those early years includes aspects of science seldom described in journals: the accidental findings, personal interactions, and scientific culture that often drive scientific progress.

Figure 1

The Adler laboratory, summer 1971. Photos of lab members (plus Wilhelm Pfeffer) arrayed around a certificate of appreciation to Linda Randall, who as Jerry Hazelbauer's spouse had made gourmet desserts for weekly Adler group meetings for the previous year and was being thanked as the two departed for postdocs at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Figure 2

Key investigators in the early days of chemotaxis research. (a, left to right) Howard Berg, Dan Koshland, and Julius Adler at the January 1977 Gordon Conference on Bacterial Cell Surfaces, Miramar Hotel, Santa Barbara, California. The image has been extracted from the participants photograph and manipulated to show only those three. Photograph reprinted with permission from the Director of the Gordon Research Conferences. (b, clockwise) Julius Adler, Mel Simon, and Dan Koshland at the September 1978 conference Flagellar Motility in Hakone, Japan. The image has been extracted from the participants photograph and manipulated to show only those three. (c, clockwise) George Ordal, Jerry Hazelbauer, Howard Berg, Bob Macnab, Sandy Parkinson, Barry Taylor, and Rick Dahlquist at dinner during the Table Ronde Roussel Uclaf Chemotaxis meeting, March 1983 in Paris, France. The image has been edited to show only researchers studying bacterial chemotaxis.

Figure 3

Participant photograph, first Gordon Research Conference on Sensory Transduction in Microorganisms, December 29, 1975 to January 2, 1976, at the Miramar Hotel in Santa Barbara, California. Participants from chemotaxis laboratories are boxed and labeled. Dan Koshland attended the meeting but did not arrive in time to be in the photograph. Photograph reprinted with permission from the Director of the Gordon Research Conferences.