Publish or Perish

[Byung-Dong Kim]

I took pictures of the stem-and-loop space filling models that performed inversion of the loop sequence by homologous recombination between inverted repeats. Diagrams were drawn and the EM pictures of mitochondrial DNA were selected, and the manuscript was prepared. I submitted the manuscript entitled “Four-stranded DNA: An Intermediate of Homologous Recombination and Transposition” to SCIENCE. I also sent the manuscript to James Watson at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He sent to me a type written letter on a letter headed paper. Watson thanked me for sending the manuscript to him. He mentioned that they are at the final stage of writing the revised edition of the “Molecular Biology of the Gene.” Watson mentioned that he will urge Jeffrey Roberts of Cornell University to seriously consider the utility of four stranded DNA in recombination in his chapter. Watson encouraged me to talk to as many people as possible about this interesting finding on DNA structure.

In the meantime I received a letter from SCIENCE mentioning that my manuscript passed the initial screening and was sent out for the second step review. My high hope was shattered when I received a final notice from SCIENCE saying that the manuscript was not selected for publication. I started out sending the manuscript to the scientists who I considered knowledgeable and closely related to the topic. Francis Crick was one of them who did not respond at all. Several months later I encountered Crick at a conference reception in MIT. He remembered the manuscript when I called upon his memory, and asked me if I still believed in it. He quickly excused himself as soon as he heard my answer to him, “Of course, I do.” One day I visited Paul Howard-Flanders at Yale University by appointment. We were engaged in a four hour non-stop conversation the content of which I do not recall at all; no single correction or constructive suggestion. I visited Alexander Rich and his associate, Andy Wang several times. The manuscript had been circulated in the lab and it did not fly. I even showed many EM pictures of DNA to Rich who told me, “The pictures may be interesting, but unless I see actual hydrogen bonds with my eyes, I would not believe in four stranded DNA. I visited John Cairns at Harvard School of Public Health. When I arrived at his office, I found him carrying himself large flasks containing culture media. He apparently was actively carrying out his own research at his rather senior age. He listened to my explanation tentatively, and then suggested that I write to Robin Holliday in Australia. Holliday wrote me back suggesting writing to Neville Symonds of Brighton, UK, and registering for the EMBO Workshop on Genetic Recombination at Nethybridge. I followed their helpful suggestions. I eventually attended the EMBO Workshop held during June 30 – July 5, 1986 and gave a talk. Sung-Hou Kim of UC Berkeley was another person who did not give much explanation but vaguely indicated that it is not wise to jump into other people’s turf as an outsider or an amateur. Uttam RajBhandary at MIT suggested that the model building is interesting but more research work should follow to substantiate my finding. Furthermore, my model building may explain intermolecular recombination, namely inversion and deletion, but not intermolecular recombination, namely site specific insertion of lambda phage and transpositions. Upon his comment I realized that my work was only half done. And I started to look into those problems as the next task.

While I was busy single-handedly promoting the idea of four stranded DNA and the publication of the manuscript, I was contacted by the Seoul National University (SNU), my alma mater, to apply for a faculty position of plant biotechnology, which has been created for the promotion of biotechnology as the future hope of science and technology. I turned down such an opportunity at SNU the previous year and this meant that I lost my last opportunity to return to SNU. I had to turn it down though because the position which was made available by the retirement of my master program advisor, dean Hyun-Koo Pyo, was to teach post-harvest biology. I left this field as soon as I received my Ph. D. degree at University of Florida and moved on to Biochemistry as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Eugene Sander in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Shands Teaching Hospital in the same campus.

This new plant biotechnology position at SNU was attractive to me. In this position I can keep working on DNA and plant tissue culture. Does coming back to Korea mean that I am effectively giving up the pursuit of the four stranded DNA? I reached a conclusion that it will be a long term process to realize the acceptance of this rather new concept of DNA structure. Present day research technology and research material may not be adequate enough to solve the problem right away. My family also liked the idea of going back to home country as I reached the age of 40s. In applying for the position one problem arouse. I needed to present more recent publication. Out of this urgency I handed the manuscript written for SCIENCE to my visiting Korean friend so that it can be published in Korean Journal of Breeding in time. It was the days when airmails took almost one month and even FAX was not readily available. Therefore, that paper was published in 1985 even without my proof reading. I closed my 17 years of research activity in the USA and moved back to Seoul Korea in July 1987.