Synopsis - Chlorophyll Biosynthesis and Technological Applications - page 43

laboratory to initiate some kind of research. Then soon thereafter I received a phone
call from Charlie Birkeland, the Head of the Department of Horticulture at the
University of Illinois offering me the professorial position at the University of
Illinois. That position had been occupied by Dan McCollum, a tomato breeder.
His wife Ashti McCollum is the lady who won the Supreme Court case against
allowing prayers release time in public schools. Charlie Birkeland gave me the
choice of an assistant professorship at a higher salary, or an associate professorship
at a lower salary. For security purposes, I choose the latter.
2.9 From Fresno State College to the University
of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
When I joined the Department of Horticulture at the UI, on February 1, 1972, as an
Associate Professor of Plant Physiology, I shared a laboratory with Walter
Splittstoesser. Walter and I had met earlier at UCD, where after getting his Ph.D.
degree with Harry Beevers at Purdue University, he had postdoctoral training in
amino acid metabolism in the laboratory of Mendel Mazelis at UCD. Mendel had
graduated earlier from Paul Stumpf's Laboratory in Berkeley. Later on, I learned
that Walter Splittstoesser was on the search committee that assessed my credentials
for the UI position.
2.9.1 Demonstration of Precursor Product Relationships
During Chlorophyll Biosynthesis
Even though the total biosynthesis of Chl was achieved in vitro, the biosynthetic
steps from Proto to Chl were based on a paper chemistry pathway proposed in
1950 by Sam Granick ( 1950 ). The pathway was based on the detection and partial
identification of various tetrapyrroles in Chlorella mutants, that were organized into
a paper pathway by order of increasing structural complexity (Granick 1948a , b ,
1950 ). Since at that time no cell free systems beyond the biosynthesis of Proto
were available, the proposed pathway was not subjected to the rigors of testing for
precursor-product relationships.
After thinking of ways to test Granick's pathway via precursor-product
relationships during Chl Biosynthesis, I came to the conclusion that this task
could not be accomplished with the use of the cell-free Chl biosynthesis system
developed earlier with the use of 14 C-putative precursors. Indeed, with the use of
14 C-anabolic precursors, investigators have to rely mainly on chromatographic
mobility to identify the 14 C-products. I decided that this methodology was not
rigorous enough for a pathway as complex as the Chl biosynthetic pathway. I
reckoned that what was needed was the development of new analytical tools that