In Pursuit of the Gene

198 ¨ THE FLY ROOM
more convenient system of nomenclature proposed by Muller in which a
gene was to be named after its mutant function or form, with a capital letters
for dominant mutations and lowercase for recessives. Additional mutations
of the same gene would be distinguished with subscripts rather than
by giving different letters for each new form, and the normal (or wild-type)
allele would always be denoted with a “+” (this last simplification suggested
by W. E. Castle, who would otherwise contribute mightily to the
muddle over characters and their relation to genes). Lastly, genes would be
listed in a horizontal line in the order in which they were linked, and homologous
chromosomes would be stacked one on top of the other, separated
by a horizontal line.
a b + D e f
a+ c + e +
Gene nomenclature.
¨ IN THE FALL OF 1911, Altenburg was finally given access to the kingdom
in the form of a bench in the fly room on the sixth floor of Columbia’s
Schermerhorn Hall. 41 He and Bridges were seated on one side of the
small lab, Morgan was usually shown in pictures standing, in the center,
and Sturtevant on the opposite side. 42 Despite the fact that he was the next
student after Sturtevant and Bridges to work in the fly room, and remained
there for two years, from 1911 to 1913, Altenburg is hardly mentioned in
the accounts of the early years. While Sturtevant and Bridges were busy
collecting and mapping new mutants, Altenburg was assigned what seemed
to be the most unpromising problem of the lab, a mutant race called “truncate,”
named for the stunted development of their wings.
Truncate, the bugbear of the laboratory, was one of two major problem
cases among a host of well-behaved classically segregating Mendelian
mutations. It was a direct descendant of the other problem case, the first of
the wing-shape mutants, known as “beaded,” so named for the small beadlike
nodes that interrupted the ordinarily smooth flow of the outer wing
edge. The transmission of both mutations was entirely erratic and seemed