John W. Drake

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John W. Drake
Born(1932-02-10)February 10, 1932
DiedFebruary 2, 2020(2020-02-02) (aged 87)
Citizenship
United States of America
Alma materCaltech
Scientific career
Fieldsmutagenesis and DNA repair and genetics
InstitutionsNIEHS
Doctoral advisorRenato Dulbecco

John W. Drake (February 10, 1932 – February 2, 2020) was an

American microbiologist and geneticist, working for over half a century in the field of mutagenesis and DNA repair.[1]

Education and early career

He completed an MS in Microbiology at the

Howard Temin in the laboratory of Renato Dulbecco.[3]

Research interests and career

Based on earlier observations on the mutation frequencies of the

University of Illinois. Together with his coworkers he could dissect both pro- and anti-mutagenic activities of the T4 DNA polymerases during viral replication. To describe the mutation rate in a quantitative way for different organisms, Drake postulated that the mutation rate (per base position and per replication cycle) is proportional to the total genome size of a DNA-based microorganism ("Drakes Law").[4][5] His own discovery of mutator phenotypes (i.e. bacterial or phage strains which display an exceptionally high mutation rate), however demonstrated that there can be deviations (hypermutability) from this general rule.[6]

As an early member of the

Environmental Mutagen Society, John W. Drake chaired its "Committee 17" which published an influential position paper; “Environmental Mutagenic Hazards”, in Science in 1975.[7] This described the research needs and regulatory responsibility for managing potential mutagenic compounds in the environment. It significantly influenced research direction, regulatory procedures and mutagenicity testing within industry within the United States and internationally.[8]

Later, he pioneered research on the mutational processes during replication of RNA viruses and RNA bacteriophages.

SARS coronavirus 2
.

As editor-in-chief of GENETICS from 1982 to 1996, Jan Drake helped to make the journal a first-choice for scientific publications from all over the world. In the last years of his academic and scientific career, John W. Drake headed the Spontaneous Mutation and DNA Repair Group within the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.[2] He was fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Selected publications

  • Drake, John W. (2006).
    ISBN 978-1-4020-4955-2
    .
  • Drake, John W. (1958). Intracellular Interactions of Polioviruses: Interference and Multiplicity Reactivation (PDF) (Thesis). Caltech.

References

  1. ^ Reha-Krantz, Linda J.; Goodman, Myron F. (December 1, 2020). "John W. (Jan) Drake: A Biochemical View of a Geneticist Par Excellence". Genetics_(journal). Retrieved March 8, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Spontaneous Mutation & DNA Repair Group". NIEHS. Archived from the original on 20 December 2010. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
  3. PMID 8878668
    .
  4. PNAS
    .
  5. S2CID 45542650
    .
  6. ^ Williams, W.E.; Drake, J.W. (July 25, 1977). "Mutator mutations in bacteriophage T4 gene 42 (dHMC hydroxymethylase)". Genetics_(journal).
  7. PMID 163482
    .
  8. ^ "Environmental Mutagen Society web site". Archived from the original on April 16, 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2010.
  9. PMID 8387212
    .
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