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Directed evolution of a full professorA.L. Nighter, F.N. Dorf and Steph A. RosePhilosophical Notions About Science (USA)Vol 2002, pp 3104-3109, October 1998Section: EvolutionKeywords: student / postdoc / professor / academic adaptations / ethanol-induced mutationsLaboratory of Human Applied Directed Evolution, Stanley Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.Communicated by Wendell Stanley, October 10, 1998 (received for review September 26, 1998).ABSTRACTSuccess in academia is hypothesized to require specific phenotypes. In order to understand how such unusual traits arise, we used human clones to identify the molecular events that occur during the transition from graduate student to professor. A pool of graduate student clones was subjected to several rounds of random mutagenesis followed by selection on minimal money media in the absence of dental insurance. Students surviving this selection were further screened for the ability to work for long hours with vending machine snacks as a sole carbon source; clones satisfying these requirements were dubbed 'postdocs�. In order to identify 'assistant professors� from amongst the postdocs, this pool was further mutagenized and screened for the ability to turn esoteric results into a 50-minute seminar. Finally, these assistant professors were evaluated for their potential to become full professors in two ways: first, they were screened for overproduction and surface display of stress proteins, such as Hsp70. Assistant professors that displayed such proteins (so-called 'stressed-out� mutants) were then fused to the M13 coat protein, displayed on phages and passed over a friend and family members column to identify those that were incapable of functional interactions. These were called 'full professors�. Although these mutants arose independently, they shared striking phenotypes. These included the propensity to talk incessantly about their own research, the inability to judge accurately the time required to complete bench work, and the belief that all of their ideas constituted good thesis projects. The linkage of all of these traits suggests that these phenotypes are coordinately regulated. Preliminary experiments have identified a putative global regulator. Studies are currently being conducted to determine if overexpression of this gene product in postdocs and graduate students can speed up the graduate student to full professor evolutionary process.*Karen Ottemann and Sharon Doyle, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA.

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