Dr George B. Johnson is a science writer who wrote the weekly column "On Science" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as...

. He is also a biology professor at Washington University and a genetics professor at their school of medicine.

Education

Johnson got his B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in English from Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

 in 1964. His interests changed and as a result went on to earn his M.A.

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 in biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

, also at Dartmouth College.

He was granted his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 from Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 in 1972, his thesis being on population biology.

Academic career

Johnson was a Research Fellow at Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Plant Biology, Stanford, California, throughout 1975 and 1976. He was made Associate Professor of Biology at Washington University

Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...

 at St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, during 1976-1980. He was also Associate Professor of Genetics at the School of Medicine from 1976-1981. He was also Lector, Genetisk Institute at Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, in April and August 1977.

In 1980 he moved onto the post of Professor of Biology at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, a post he held until 2004. He was also Professor of Genetics there from 1981 to 2004. During the years 1987 and 1990 he served as Director at The Living World education center, St. Louis Zoo.

Since 2004 he works as Professor Emeritus of Biology at Washington University.

Research publications

• Wild type and mutant stocks of Aspergillus nidulans
  Aspergillus nidulans
  Aspergillus nidulans is one of many species of filamentous fungi in the phylum Ascomycota...
  
  , (with R.W. Barratt and W.N. Ogata), 1965, Genetics 52: 233-234
• Purification and characterization of glutamic acid dehydrogenase from Escherichia coli strain K-12. Master's thesis, Dartmouth College, 1966
• Analysis of enzyme variation in natural populations of the butterfly Colias eurytheme, 1971, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 68: 997-1001
• The relationship of enzyme polymorphism
  Polymorphism (biology)
  Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species — in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph...
  
   to metabolic function, 1971, Nature 232: 347-348
• The selective significance of biochemical polymorphism
  Polymorphism (biology)
  Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species — in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph...
  
   in Colias butterflies, Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, 1972
• Enzyme polymorphisms: Evidence that they are not selectively neutral, 1972, Nature New Biol. 237: 170-171
• The relationship of enzyme polymorphism to species diversity, 1973, Nature 242: 193-194
• Enzyme polymorphism and biosystematics: The hypothesis of selective neutrality, 1973, Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics, 4: 93-116
• The importance of substrate variability to enzyme polymorphism, 1973, Nature New Biol. 243: 1 51-153
• On the hypothesis that polymorphic enzyme alleles are selectively neutral. I. The evenness of allele frequency distribution, (with M.W. Feldman), 1973, Theor. Pop. Biol. 4: 209-221
• Enzyme polymorphism and metabolism, 1974, Science 184: 28-37
• On the estimation of effective number of alleles from electrophoretic data, 1974, Genetics 78: 771-776
• Studying genetic variation in human populations, 1974, Jour. Heredity 65: 260-261
• The use of internal standards in electrophoretic surveys of enzyme polymorphism, 1975, Biochemical Genetics 13: 833-847
• Enzyme polymorphism and adaptation, 1975, Stadler Genetics Symposium 7: 91-116
• Mechanisms of evolution and speciation, 1975, In LIFE: THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SPECIES (T. Lane, Ed.). Mosby Publishing Company, St. Louis, Missouri.
• Polymorphism and predictability at the alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase locus in Colias butterflies: Gradients in allele frequencies within a single population, 1976, Biochemical Genetics 14: 403-426
• Genetic polymorphism and enzyme function, 1976, In THE MOLECULAR STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION, Chapter 3, pp. 46–59 (F. Ayala, Ed.), Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts.
• Hidden alleles at the alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase locus in Colias butterflies, 1976, Genetics 83: 149-167
• Enzyme polymorphism and adaptation in Alpine butterflies, 1976, In EVOLUTION WITHIN POPULATIONS, Ann. Mo. Bot. Garden 63: 248-261
• Enzyme polymorphism in the butterfly Colias: Selection on metabolic phenotypes, 1976, Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook 75: 440- 449
• Characterization of electrophoretically hidden variation in the butterfly Colias, 1976, Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook 75: 449-456
• Factors altering the gel sieving behavior of proteins: The effect of deuterium oxide, 1976, Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook 75: 456-459
• Evaluation of the stepwise mutation model of electrophoretic mobility: Comparison of the gel sieving behavior of alleles at the esterase-5 locus of Drosophila pseudoobscura, 1977, Genetics 87: 139-157. Abstract: Genetics 83: s36 (1976)
• Characterization of electrophoretically cryptic variation in the alpine butterfly Colias meadii, 1977, Biochemical Genetics 15: 665-693
• Hidden heterogeneity among electrophoretic alleles, 1977, In MEASURING SELECTION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS (F. Christiansen, T. Fenchel, Eds.), Springer-Verlag, Berlin: 223-244
• Assessing electrophoretic similarity: The problem of hidden heterogeneity, 1977, Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics, Vol. 8: 309-328
• Isozymes, allozymes, and enzyme polymorphism: Structural constraints on polymorphic variation, 1978, Isozymes: Current Topics in Biological and Medical Research, Vol. 2: 1-21
• Enzyme polymorphism: Metabolic considerations, 1978, Metabolic Therapy, 7: l-4
• Structural flexibility of isozyme variants: Genetic variants in Drosophila
  Drosophila
  Drosophila is a genus of small flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "fruit flies" or more appropriately pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species to linger around overripe or rotting fruit...
  
   disguised by cofactor and subunit binding, 1978, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 75: 395-399. Abstract: Genetics 86: s33, (1977)
• Genetically controlled variation in conformation of enzymes, 1979, Prog. Nucleic Acid Res. Molec. Biol. 22: 293-326
• Genetic variation in the physiological phenotype, 1979, In POPULATION BIOLOGY OF PLANTS (O. Solbrig, S. Jain, G. Johnson & P. Raven, Eds.), Columbia Univ. Press, N.Y.: p. 62-83
• Genetic polymorphism at enzyme loci, 1979, In PHYSIOLOGICAL GENETICS (J. Scandalios, Ed.), Academic Press, N.Y.: 239-273
• Post-translational modification as a potential explanation of high levels of enzyme polymorphism (with V. Finnerty), 1979, Genetics 9l: 695-722
• Gene expression in Drosophila: Characterization of the enzymes produced by certain complementary maroon-like heterozygotes (with V. Finnerty, and M. McCarron), 1979, Molec. Gen. Genet., 172: 37-43
• The genetics of electrophoretic variation: a response (with V. Finnerty), 1979, Genetics 92: 357-360
• Increasing the resolution of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis by varying the degree of gel cross-linking, 1979, Biochemical Genetics 7: 499-5l6
• Unvermutete Genetische Variation an Enzymorten (with V. Loeschcke), 1979, Biologisches Zentralblatt, 98: l63-l73
• Structural vs. post-translational components of genic variation (with V. Finnerty), 1979, Genetics 92: 683-684
• POPULATION BIOLOGY OF PLANTS, 1980, Editor (with O. Solbrig, S. Jain & P. Raven), Columbia Univ. Press, N.Y.
• Polyploidy
  Polyploidy
  Polyploid is a term used to describe cells and organisms containing more than two paired sets of chromosomes. Most eukaryotic species are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes — one set inherited from each parent. However polyploidy is found in some organisms and is especially common...
  
  , plants, and electrophoresis (with B. Carr), 1980. In POLYPLOIDY (W. Lewis, Ed.), Academic Press, N.Y.
• Post-translational modification of xanthine dehydrogenase
  Xanthine dehydrogenase
  Xanthine dehydrogenase, also known as XDH, is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the XDH gene.-Function:Xanthine dehydrogenase belongs to the group of molybdenum-containing hydroxylases involved in the oxidative metabolism of purines. The enzyme is a homodimer...
  
   in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster
  Drosophila melanogaster
  Drosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W...
  
   (with D. Hartl and V. Finnerty). 1981. Genetics 98: 817-831
• Gel sieving electrophoresis: A description of procedures and analysis. In METHODS OF BIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS (D. Glick, Ed.), 1983, Interscience Publishers, New York.
• Phylogenetic Implications of Ribosomal DNA
  Ribosomal DNA
  Ribosomal DNA codes for ribosomal RNA. The ribosome is an intracellular macromolecule that produces proteins or polypeptide chains. The ribosome itself consists of a composite of proteins and RNA. As shown in the figure, rDNA consists of a tandem repeat of a unit segment, an operon, composed of...
  
   Restriction Site Variation in the Plant Family Onagraceae (with J. Crisci, E. Zimmer, P. Hoch, C. Mudd and N. Pan), 1990, Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard 77: 523-538

Texts

• BIOLOGY (with P. Raven and latest edition with Jonathan Losos and Susan Singer), 1986, 1989, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.
• UNDERSTANDING BIOLOGY (with P. Raven), 1988, 1991, 1995. Wm. C. Brown Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.
• ENVIRONMENT (with P. Raven and L. Berg) 1993, 1996. Saunders Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• BIOLOGY VISUALIZING LIFE. 1993, 1997. Holt Rinehart Winston, Austin, Texas.
• HUMAN BIOLOGY: CONCEPTS AND ISSUES, 1994. W.C. Brown Publishing Co., Dubuque, Iowa.
• BIOLOGY: PRINCIPLES AND EXPLORATIONS, 1995, 2000 (with P. Raven). Holt Rinehart Winston, Austin, Texas.
• HOW SCIENTISTS THINK: KEY EXPERIMENTS IN GENETICS, 1995. W.C. Brown Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.
• THE LIVING WORLD, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.

External links

• George B. Johnson's homepage