終身教授是如何產生的？

DIRECT EVOLUTION OF A FULL PROFESSOR

Abstract:

Success in academia is hypothesized to require specific phenotypes.   In  order to understand how such unusual traits arise, we used human clones  to identify the molecular events that occur during the transition from a  graduate student to professor. A pool of graduate student clones was subjected to several rounds of random mutagenesis followed by selection on  minimal money media in the absence of dental insurance.
一直有人懷疑，要在學術界成功需要特定的性狀；為了要瞭解這些性狀是如何產生的，研究者將一群研究生的clone先進行幾次的隨機突變後，再將這些clone放在不含牙醫保險的最少金錢培養基（按：國外牙醫保險非常貴）上培養。

Students surviving  this selection were further screened for the ability to work long hours with vending machine snacks as a sole carbon source; clones satisfying  these requirements were dubbed "post-docs". In order to identify assistant  professors from amongst the post-docs, this pool was further  mutagenized,  and screened for the ability to turn esoteric results into a 50 minute  seminar.

能在培養基上生長的學生接著再進行下一輪的篩選：這次是篩選能夠以一包10-15元的泡麵當作唯一碳源的狀況下（按：原文是說以自動販賣機的點心當作唯一碳源，但台灣沒有這種東西，所以老葉改了一下），還能長時間工作作為篩選的條件；能夠符合這些條件的，就叫做「博士後研究員」。為了要找到「助理教授」，這些「博士後研究員」再度進行隨機突變，並從突變後的clone中找出具有將深奧的結果轉換成一場50分鐘演講的能力。能合乎這個條件的「博士後研究員」，就是「助理教授」。

Finally, these assistant professors were evaluated for their potential to become full professors in two ways: first, they were screened   for overproduction and surface display of stress proteins such as Hsp70.  Assistant professors that displayed such proteins (so-called "stressed-out" mutants) were then fused to the M13 coat protein, displayed on phages  and   passed over a friend and family members column, to identify those that  were incapable of functional interactions. These were called full professors.
接著，這些「助理教授」們，如果表面的壓力蛋白（如Hsp70）過度表現的話，就會將他們和M13噬菌體表面蛋白融合後，以phage-display來研究是否能與家庭及朋友進行有意義的互動。不能進行有意義互動的「助理教授」們，就是「終身教授」。

Although these mutants arose independently, they shared striking  phenotypes.  These included the propensity to talk incessantly about their own research, the inability to accurately judge the time required to  complete bench work, and the belief that all their ideas constituted good thesis projects. The linkage of all these traits suggests that these  phenotypes are coordinately regulated.  Preliminary experiments have identified a putative global regulator.  Studies are currently being conducted to determine if overexpression of this gene product in post-docs and grad students can speed up the grad student-full professor  evolutionary process.
結果發現，這些「終身教授」們有許多共同的性狀，包括：
一、他們只要一談到自己的研究就沒完沒了；
二、他們永遠低估完成一個實驗所需要的時間；
三、他們永遠都認為自己的任何想法都是論文的好題材。
目前的結果發現了一個調節蛋白跟這些性狀的表現有關，研究者正在嘗試著在研究生跟博士後研究員體內高量表現這個蛋白，並觀察是否能加速終身教授的產生。

EDITOR'S COMMENTARY:

The present paper, titled "Direct Evolution of a Full Professor" is a fascinating document, well worth publication. However, the authors fail  to note several topics sure to be of interest to the Journal's readers. For example, it is a well-documented phenomenon that transition to industry  can occur at any point along the evolutionary pathway. The authors fail to comment on the possible mechanisms behind such versatility.  Plasmid-borne  resistance genes encoding a tropism for rich media have been postulated  to fulfill this function. In support of this hypothesis, it may be noted that previous researchers who attempted to isolate this plasmid quickly underwent transition and never published their findings.


編輯意見：


這篇論文非常有趣，但是作者忘了進行一些相關的研究，例如：在整個終身教授產生的途徑中，隨時都會轉換到業界去，而這個轉換是否與先前分離出來的一個質體相關呢？這個質體上帶有對於「富有培養基」有趨性的基因，先前負責分離這個質體的研究員，實驗做到一半就跑去業界，也沒有把研究成果發表了。