Laurence Marvin Sandler (1929–1987) was a "leading ''

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species ...

'' geneticist", Dan Lindsley
"Larry Sandler: Personal Recollections"
''

Genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

'' 151: 1233–1237 (April 1999) active during the mid-20th century. Sandler is best known for his work establishing and elucidating the phenomenon of

meiotic drive Meiotic drive is a type of intragenomic conflict, whereby one or more loci within a genome will effect a manipulation of the meiotic process in such a way as to favor the transmission of one or more alleles over another, regardless of its phenotyp ...

. (Meiotic drive is when one copy of a gene is passed on to offspring more than the expected 50% of the time.) Sandler earned a B.S. at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and did his doctoral work with Ed Novitski at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

, where he collaborated with Gerry Braver.Dan Lindsley
"Larry Sandler: The Father of Meiotic Drive"
''The American Naturalist'', Vol. 137, No. 3, pp.283-286 (March 1991). Braver and Sandler discovered that meiotic chromosomal loss was one driver of allelic variation in natural populations, (Sandler & Braver 1954.) a phenomenon coined "

" in a follow-up paper by Sandler and Novitski. (Sandler & Novitski 1957.) Sandler also collaborated with Iris Sandler, his wife and fellow scientist, who also worked as a graduate student in Novitski's lab. In 1956, Sandler briefly joined the Biology Division at

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research and ...

, where Sandler and Dan Lindsley worked on sperm dysfunction. After joining the lab of

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, Sandler and Yuichiro Hiraizumi began working on

segregation distortion Intragenomic conflict refers to the evolutionary phenomenon where genes have phenotypic effects that promote their own transmission in detriment of the transmission of other genes that reside in the same genome. The selfish gene theory postulates ...

, publishing several papers together.B. Ganetzky, "Yuichiro Hiraizumi and forty years of segregation distortion", ''Genetics'' (1999). Sandler moved to the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1962. There he supervised numerous graduate students who joined the field, including Bruce Baker, Adelaide T. Carpenter, Ian Duncan, Barry Ganetzky, Larry Goldstein, Kent Golic, Jeff Hall, Scott Hawley, Jim Mason, John Merriam, Joe O'Tousa, Leonard Robbins, Paul Szauter, Bill Sullivan, Jon Tomkiel, and Glenn Yasuda. Sandler was professionally active, involved in the founding of the Drosophila Research Conference, and transferring it to the

Genetics Society of America The Genetics Society of America (GSA) is a scholarly membership society of more than 5,500 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931. The Society was formed from the reorganization of the Joint Genetics Sections of the American Soc ...

. He was also involved with other conferences, including the International Congress of Genetics, and as editor with numerous genetics journals, including ''

Annual Review of Genetics The ''Annual Review of Genetics'' is an annual peer-reviewed scientific review journal published by Annual Reviews. It was established in 1967 and covers all topics related to the genetics of viruses, bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals, includi ...

'' and ''

''. Sandler was married to fellow scientist Iris Sandler, who ultimately became a

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

. The couple had two children, Jack and Dee Sandler. He died in 1987.

Significant papers

* Sandler & Braver 1954, "The meiotic behavior of grossly deleted X chromosomes in ''Drosophila melanogaster''", ''Genetics'' v.43, pp. 547–563. * Sandler & Novitski 1957, "Meiotic drive as an evolutionary force," ''

American Naturalist ''The American Naturalist'' is the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the American Society of Naturalists, whose purpose is "to advance and to diffuse knowledge of organic evolution and other broad biological principles so as to enhance th ...

'' v.91, pp. 105–110. * D. L. Lindsley & L. Sandler, 1958, "The meiotic behavior of grossly deleted X chromosomes in ''Drosophila melanogaster''", ''Genetics'', 43:547-563. * Larry Sandler and Yuichiro Hiraizumi, 1960, "Meiotic drive in natural populations of ''Drosophila melanogaster''", ''Genetics'', 45:1671-1689 ("On the nature of the ''SD'' region").

Awards and recognition

* Honoree of the

Larry Sandler Memorial Award The Larry Sandler Memorial Award is a prestigious international award given for research in the ''Drosophila'' community. The award is given for the best dissertation of the preceding year, and is given at the annual Drosophila Research Confere ...

, for the best ''

''-related dissertation * 1991 Memorial Symposium on

Meiotic Drive Meiotic drive is a type of intragenomic conflict, whereby one or more loci within a genome will effect a manipulation of the meiotic process in such a way as to favor the transmission of one or more alleles over another, regardless of its phenotyp ...

, published in ''American Naturalist'' (1991) * Annual Sandler Lecture hosted by the genetics department at the University of Washington

References

* Dan Lindsley
"Larry Sandler: Personal Recollections"
''

'' 151: 1233–1237 (April 1999)
"Larry Sandler: The Father of Meiotic Drive"
''The American Naturalist'', Vol. 137, No. 3, pp. 283–286 (March 1991). * Scott Hawley, "Meiosis as an "M"Thing: Twenty-Five Years of Meiotic Mutants in ''Drosophila''", ''Genetics'' (1993) * B. Ganetzky, "Yuichiro Hiraizumi and Forty Years of Segregation Distortion", ''Genetics'' 1999 ; Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandler, Larry 1929 births 1987 deaths American geneticists Cornell University alumni University of Missouri alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty University of Washington faculty