Microbiology and Immunology

WORLD OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY McCarty, Maclyn

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The mastigophora are noteworthy mainly because of the

presence in the division of several disease-causing species.

Some mastigophora are parasites, which depend on the infec-

tion of a host for the completion of their life cycle. These par-

asites cause disease in humans and other animals. One

example is the Trypanosomes, which cause African sleeping

sicknessand Chaga’s disease. Another example is Giardia

lamblia. This microorganism is the agent that causes an intes-

tinal malady called giardiasis. The condition has also been

popularly dubbed “beaver fever,” reflecting its presence in the

natural habitat, where it is a resident of the intestinal tract of

warm-blooded animals.

Giardia lambliais an important contaminant of drink-

ing water. The microorganism is resistant to the disinfectant

action of chlorine, which is the most common chemical for the

treatment of drinking water. In addition, a dormant form of the

microorganism called a cyst is small enough that it can elude

the filtration step in water treatment plants. The microbe is

increasingly becoming a concern in drinking waters all over

the world, even in industrialized countries with state of the art

water treatment infrastructure.

See alsoProtozoa

MMatin, A. C.ATIN, A. C.(1941- )

Indian American microbiologist

A. C. Matin is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

at Stanford University in Stanford, California. He has made

pioneering contributions to microbiology in a number of

areas; these include his notable research into the ways in

which bacterialike Escherichia coliadapt and survive periods

of nutrient starvation. His studies have been important in com-

bating infections and the remediation of wastes.

Matin was born in Delhi, India. He attended the

University of Karachi, where he received his B.S. in microbi-

ology and zoology in 1960 and his M.S. in microbiology in

1962. From 1962 until 1964 he was a lecturer in microbiology
      at St. Joseph’s College for Women in Karachi. He then moved
      to the United States to attend the University of California at
      Los Angeles, from which he received a Ph.D. in microbiology
      (with distinction) in 1969. From 1969 until 1971 he was a
      postdoctoral research associate at the State University of The
      Netherlands. He then became a Scientific Officer, First Class,
      in the Department of Microbiology at the same institution, a
      post he held until 1975. That year Matin returned to the United
      States to accept a position at Stanford University, the institu-
      tion with which he remains affiliated.
      Matin has made fundamental contributions to the bio-
      chemical and molecular biological study of the bacterial stress
      response—that is, how bacteria adapt to stresses in parameters
      such as temperature, pH(a measure of the acidity and alkalinity
      of a solution), and food availability. Matin and his colleagues
      provided much of the early data on the behavior of bacteria
      when their nutrients begin to become exhausted and waste prod-
      ucts accumulate. This phase of growth, termed the stationary
      phase, has since been shown to have great relevance to the

growth conditions that disease-causing bacteria face in the

body, and which bacteria can face in the natural environment.

Matin has also made important contributions to the

study of multidrug resistance in the bacterium Escherichia

coli, specifically the use of a protein pump to exclude a vari-

ety of antibacterial drugs, and to the antibiotic resistanceof

Staphylococcus aureus.

Matin has published over 70 major papers and over 30

book chapters and articles. He has consulted widely among

industries concerned with bacterial drug resistance and bacte-

rial behavior.

For his scientific contributions Matin has received

numerous awards and honors. These include his appointment

as a Fulbright Scholar from 1964 until 1971, election to the

American Academy of Microbiology, and inclusion in publi-

cations such as Who’s Who in the Frontiers of Scienceand

Outstanding People of the 20th Century.

See alsoAntibiotic resistance, tests for; Bacterial adaptation

MMcCarty, Maclyn CCARTY, MACLYN(1911- )

American bacteriologist

Maclyn McCarty is a distinguished bacteriologist who has

done important work on the biology of Streptococciand the

origins of rheumatic fever, but he is best known for his

involvement in early experiments which established the func-

tion of DNA. In collaboration with Oswald Avery and Colin

Munro MacLeod, McCarty identified DNA as the substance

which controls heredity in living cells. The three men pub-

lished an article describing their experiment in 1944, and their

work opened the way for further studies in bacteriological

physiology, the most important of which was the demonstra-

tion of the chemical structure of DNA by James Watson and

Francis Crickin 1953.

McCarty was born in South Bend, Indiana. His father

worked for the Studebaker Corporation and the family moved

often, with McCarty attending five schools in three different

cities by the time he reached the sixth grade. In his autobio-

graphical book, The Transforming Principle, McCarty

recalled the experience as positive, believing that moving so

often made him an inquisitive and alert child. He spent a year

at Culver Academy in Indiana from 1925 to 1926, and he fin-

ished high school in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His family moved

to Portland, Oregon, and McCarty attended Stanford

University in California. He majored in biochemistryunder

James Murray Luck, who was then launching the Annual

Review of Biochemistry.McCarty presented public seminars

on topics derived from articles submitted to this publication,

and he graduated with a B.A. in 1933.

Although Luck asked him to remain at Stanford,

McCarty entered medical school at Johns Hopkins in

Baltimore in 1933. He was married during medical school

days, and he spent a summer of research at the Mayo Clinic in

Minnesota. After graduation, McCarty spent three years work-

ing in pediatric medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Even

in the decade before penicillin, new chemotherapeutic agents

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