The Electrophoretic Revolution in the 1960s: Historical Epistemology Meets the Global History of Science and Technology

This paper uses zone electrophoresis, one of the most frequently used tools in molecular biology, to explore two ideas derived from Hans-Jörg Rheinberger's reflections on experiments. First, the constraining role played by technical objects-instrumentation and material conditions-in the production of knowledge or epistemic things. Second, the production of interconnected experimental systems by such technical objects, which results in the unexpected entanglement of research fields and experimental cultures. By the beginning of the 1960s, the inception of zone electrophoresis in laboratories around the world transformed-some say, revolutionized-the study of proteins. Even today, electrophoresis continues to open research venues and questions in biomedicine, molecular biology, human genetics, and in the field of molecular evolution. In my essay, I seek to look at the interconnected lives of zone electrophoresis and address the broader social, and even global context, in which this apparently humble technique became a salient tool in the production of biological knowledge. In so doing, I aim to take the past and present of the history and historiography of experimental systems to the future, where experiments and technologies are interrogated as they are used in different geographies and contexts, including contexts of poverty.

The legacy of diploid progenitors in allopolyploid gene expression patterns

Allopolyploidization (hybridization and whole-genome duplication) is a common phenomenon in plant evolution with immediate saltational effects on genome structure and gene expression. New technologies have allowed rapid progress over the past decade in our understanding of the consequences of allopolyploidy. A major question, raised by early pioneer of this field Leslie Gottlieb, concerned the extent to which gene expression differences among duplicate genes present in an allopolyploid are a legacy of expression differences that were already present in the progenitor diploid species. Addressing this question necessitates phylogenetically well-understood natural study systems, appropriate technology, availability of genomic resources and a suitable analytical framework, including a sufficiently detailed and generally accepted terminology. Here, we review these requirements and illustrate their application to a natural study system that Gottlieb worked on and recommended for this purpose: recent allopolyploids of Tragopogon (Asteraceae). We reanalyse recent data from this system within the conceptual framework of parental legacies on duplicate gene expression in allopolyploids. On a broader level, we highlight the intellectual connection between Gottlieb's phrasing of this issue and the more contemporary framework of cis- versus trans-regulation of duplicate gene expression in allopolyploid plants.