Barbara McClintock and Her Jumping Genes

        Barbara McClintock was born in 1902 to a very traditional family. Her mom stayed home to raise four children and her dad was a homeopathic doctor. Neither her mother nor father encouraged her to peruse science, but her intrinsic drive was so strong that nothing could stop her.

Barbara McClintock

        Using the Big 5 personality test it is not hard to see how she was so successful in her field. In regard to extraversion she was both ends. While she was strong willed and determined, she did not publish her work until trusted colleges approved her findings. She found good in both collaboration and solo work. She was very agreeable, but also was not afraid to go against the paradigm at the time. For conscientiousness she was intuitive but also goal oriented and meticulous in her findings. Her emotional stability was not ever expressed explicitly, but many say she was cool headed, focused and highly passionate all at the same time. Furthermore, she was extremely open minded but had a narrow field of interest. That interest being cytogenetics. In Csikszentmihalyi’s research he found that creative people seemed to possess both aspects if dichotomies. Using the big 5 personality test it is evident that Barbara McClintock is a perfect example of this dualism in creative individuals. She had a great personality for becoming a big C creative and was always able to find the right questions to answer. 

        Since a child Barbara McClintock had a strong-willed personality and was very vocal about what she thought. She was originally named Eleanor, but her parents decided that the name was to feminine for her and changed her name when she was just a girl to Barbara. Her mother had big plans for her to marry young and be a respectable housewife like herself, but Barbara had a calling for science. It wasn’t until her father came back from war that she was allowed to follow her dreams and enroll in Cornell University. She never did marry like her mother wanted. Her biggest commitment was to her field. One could say her Faustian Bargain was to give up a chance at a lifelong companion in exchange for the love of science.

        At Cornell, she studied Botany and received her Bachelors, Masters, and PhD in botany. These skills along with a genetics class she took would be the key to her success. After college she become a professor at University of Missouri but was not pleased with the lack of time she had for her research on maize. So, she left and began research at Cold Spring Harbor research facility. It was here that she confirmed her startling conclusions on jumping genes in corn.

        Barbara McClintock challenged the ideas at the time that genes were stationary. Many scientists at the time believed her to be crazy and dismissed her findings. However, she did not stop her research and was not discouraged by the lack of welcome to her astonishing findings. She knew she was right and just needed more evidence to prove it. So, for many years she was not awarded for her findings. Some may say she had a large ego, but she was never boisterous or rude to those that did not agree with her. She simply was extremely intrinsically motivated. 

Barbara McClintocks Labeled Corn

“If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off... no matter what they say.”  -Barbara McClintock 

        All her research began with a common plant; corn. She was amazed at how corn could express so many different phenotypes, and knew it was not a result to mutation. The mutation rate would be too high. So, she set out to solve the mystery of corn. Each corn head has hundreds of offspring, because each kernel is a separate embryo. She began sequencing the genes of each kernel and made a startling discovery. The genes moved. They moved through a processes of recombination and crossover events. These jumping genes could lead to silencing or activating of different gene sequences leading to various expressed phenotypes. This moving was controlled by, what she creatively labeled, controlling elements. She called these moving genes transposons and devoted the rest of her career and life to understanding these jumping genes. 

        Her creative processes were deliberate, effortful and aware, but still full of intuitions. It was a painstaking process, littered with hours of labeling, laboratory, and microscopic viewing. However, most of the things she focused her studies on came from intuition. She would research in the lab and make notes. Then would go home for a period of incubation. Once back she would ponder on her findings until her intuition lead her to a conclusion she could then study and prove. 

        She made many discovers in the world of genetics but was most known for her tireless study of the jumping genes. She was eventually awarded the National Medal of Science (1970) and the Noble Prize (1983) for her research. While she officially retired in 1967, she continued to work in the research field until her death at the age of 90.

 

Time line of Barbara McClintock's Life and Accomplishments