1968 Symposium

[Evelyn Witkin]

It was during the 1968 CSH Symposium. Only one DNA polymerase was known in E. coli, the one (now known as DNA polymerase I) that Arthur Kornberg had discovered and characterized. DeLucia and Cairns had just isolated a mutant apparently lacking the activity of this enzyme, but nevertheless, it replicated its DNA efficiently. I asked Arthur if he didn't think there must be more than one DNA polymerase in E. coli. He replied: "I don't care how many DNA polymerases there are -- this one is a BEAUTIFUL enzyme!" And it surely is.