Symbionticism and the Origin of Species

In his book Symbionticism and the Origin of Species from 1927, Ivan Wallin (1883-1969) at the University of Colorado advanced the theory that the inheritance of acquired bacteria was the source of new genes and the primary mechanism for the origin of species. Wallin had come to symbiosis and mitochondria through studies of tissue differentiation and development in the lamprey Ammocetes. The continental research on mitochondria and their proposed roles in development and heredity were introduced to English-speaking researchers by Edmund Cowdry (1918). Wallin had also made a study of Portier s Les symbiotes, and he pressed the idea in the context of heredity, development, and evolution. 

Like Portier before him, Wallin (1927) argued that is was merely a convenient matter to explain his results away with the dogmatic cry of contamination . He had assured his readers that all instruments and vessels had been thoroughly sterilized. The fetus or newborn rabbit after decapitation was saturated with 95% alcohol. The instruments used in opening the abdomen and removing the liver were always sterilized in the flame immediately before use. The liver was quickly removed to a sterile petri dish, cut into pieces by inserting a sterile scalpel under the lid. Pieces of the liver tissue were then planted in the media by the usual bacteriological technique. 

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Wallin IE (1927) Symbionticism and the origin of species. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore Watasd S (1893) On the nature of cell organization. Woods Hole Biol Lect 83-103 Wilson EB (1896) The cell in development and inheritance. Macmillan, New York Wilson EB (1925) The cell in development and heredity, 3rd edn. Macmillan, New York Woese CR (1977) Endosymbionts and mitochondrial origins. J Mol Evol 10 93-96 Woese CR (1998) The universal ancestor. Proc Natl Acad Sci 95 6854-6859 Woese CR, Fox GE (1977) Phylogenetic structure ofthe prokaryotic domain the primary kingdoms. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 74 5088-5090... 

Wallin J.E. 1927. Symbionticism and the Origin of Species. Williams Wilkins, Baltimore, Maryland. 

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