A Louisiana State University Medical School biochemist hopes to utilize proteins in accurately identified organisms and in unraveling some of nature's deeper mysteries of heredity.
In a paper read yesterday in Washington, D. C, before the International Congress of Biology, Dr. Herbert C. Des-sauer, professor of biochemistry,""
discussed "Electrophoretic Tech-niques in Systematics."
' 'Modern scientific technique in chemistry has made possible the identification of species of animals, races and even individuals," he pointed out.
Dr. Dessauer believes that as scientific techniques in isolating and determining protein structure advance, more and more of the secrets of heredity of species will unfold.
"Whether'it be a question oi disputed parentage before a court of law, a problem of identifying a poisonous snake so that its victim can be treated with the proper antivenin, or a query into the kinship or evolution of a group of animals, the common problem faced is one of organism identification," he stressed.
"Since variations in appearance result from underlying chemical differences, it is not surprising that chemical characteristics give sensitive means of identifying organisms and estimating their degree of relationship," he continues.
"To determine chemical characteristics of an organism, the biologist requires methods that are simple, rapid and require small amounts of material. Electropho-resis, a technique by which chemicals are recognized on the basis of their differences in electric charge, often meets these requirements," he said.
Dr. Wade Fox, associate pro-iessor of anatomy at LSU, is coauthor of the paper. The two have collaborated for 10 years in research efforts involving the biochemical and anatomical aspects of heredity in vertebrates.
