Thomas Jukes (1906-1999)
had a long and distinguished career in nutrition science and
molecular evolution. He had a penchant both for creating controversy
and for getting involved in controversies already brewing.
In addition to his naming his brand of the neutral theory
"Non-Darwinian Evolution" (with the specific intent
of provoking evolutionary biologists) Jukes also advocated
for the use of pesticides and hormones in food production,
argued against a ban on DDT in the early-1970s, and fought
for the increased teaching of evolution in secondary education.
Jukes received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University
of Toronto in1933, and was a faculty member at UC-Davis from
1934-1942, where he studied the nutritional requirements of
poultry. In 1942, he accepted a position at Lederle Laboratories,
where he helped develop antibiotics and cancer therapies.
Among his accomplishments during this period was the discovery
of the role of folic acid in development, He also played a
crucial role in the synthesis of the chemotheraputic drug
In 1963, fascinated by the stunning advances that had taken
place in molecular biology over the past 10 years--including
the elucidation of the structure of DNA and the genetic code--Jukes
decided to return to UC-Berkeley (where he had done post-doctoral
work)--under the auspices of a NASA-funded grant entitled
"Chemistry of Living Systems." Jukes was initially
interested in how molecular biology could help scientists
understand the evolution of life. His 1966 book, Molecules
and Evolution, is an early exploration of the implications
of the existence of large quantities of sequence variation
in the cytochrome c molecules of various species. In 1969,
Jukes and Jack King put forth their definitive statement of
the neutral theory in a paper entitled, "Non-Darwinian
Evolution." They argued that the rate of protein evolution
in non-essential regions occurred much too quickly to be accounted
for by Haldane's cost of selection, and were therefore most
likely the result of mutation and drift. This was the same
conclusion that Motoo Kimura reached independently in 1968.
By the mid-1970s, Jukes had mostly moved away from the field
of molecular evolution, writing about topics like education
and continuing his crusade against what he perceived to be
'quack' cures for disease. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jukes was
awarded numerous prizes and medals for his lifetime of contributions
to nutrition and cancer research. He died in November 1999
at the age of 93.
Selected Bibliography of Jukes's work on molecular evolution:
- Thomas Jukes, Molecules and Evolution (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1966).
- T.H. Jukes and C.R. Cantor, "Evolution of protein
molecules," in H.N. Munro (ed.), Mammalian Protein
Metabolism (New York: Academic Press, 1969), pp. 21-32.
- J.L. King and T.H Jukes, "Non-Darwinian Evolution,"
Science (1969), 164: 788-798.
- T.H. Jukes, "Evolution of the amino acid code,"
in M. Nei and R. K. Koehn (eds.), Evolution of Genes and
Protein (Sunderland, MA: Sinauer, 1983), pp. 191-207.
- T.H. Jukes and M. Kimura, "Evolutionary constraints
and the neutral theory," Journal of Molecular Evolution
(1984), 21: 90-92.
- T.H. Jukes, "A Change in the genetic code of Mycoplasma
capricolum," Journal of Molecular Evolution (1985),
- T.H. Jukes, "Early development of the neutral theory,"
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (1991), 34: 473-485.
- T.H. Jukes, "The neutral theory of molecular evolution,"
Genetics (2000), 154(3): 956-958.
This page was written by Jay Aronson. It was last updated