Clyde A. Hutchison III

Since my graduate work with R. L. Sinsheimer, I have studied methods for integrating mutational genetic analysis with the direct biochemical study of DNA genomes. With Marshall Edgell, I developed "marker rescue" to map DNA fragments from bacteriophage PhiX, and then identified the first overlapping genes by DNA sequence analysis in the laboratory of Fred Sanger. In collaboration with the laboratory of Michael Smith, I performed the first oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis experiments. More recently my laboratory has developed methods which make it practical to produce and analyze single amino acid replacement mutations at every codon throughout a protein coding sequence. This work is currently focused on studies of the structure and function of pol gene products from the AIDS virus, HIV-1. Areas of current research activity in my laboratory include the biology and evolution of the mammalian L1 transposable element, and studies of the minimal cellular genome of Mycoplasma genitalium.