Structural and Regulative Genes Controlling Tyrosinase Synthesis in Neurospora

Abstract

Tyrosinase has been of interest to geneticists longer than any other enzyme. In 1904, just a few years after the rediscovery of Mendelism, Bateson's sister-in-law, F. M. Durham, published some experiments which attempted to relate the coat color of animals to the tyrosinase content of their skin. The astounding simplicity of the results obtained in this pioneering attempt proved to be illusory, and much still remains obscure about the process of animal pigmentation. It is now generally agreed that tyrosinase is lacking in the skin of albino animals, but beyond this there appears to be no correspondence between tyrosinase activity and the degree of melanic pigmentation (Foster, 1959). Two impediments to progress in this field have been the insolubility of animal tyrosinase and the difficulty of obtaining it in quantity from skin. The first obstacle has recently been overcome by Brown and Ward (1958), who have obtained a soluble...