29/4/49
Dear Dr. Lederberg,
Thank you for the review which you sent me recently.  I was most interested to read your analysis of the life-cycle of coli (page 179. lines 7-3 from bottom of the page).  This is exactly the conclusion to which I have come from my cytological studies.
The two pairs of chromosomes or chromosome complexes are all of equal value (i.e. the cell is haploid).  Fusion is between two cells of equal value, and reduction follows fusion immediately.  It is most encouraging to find that genetical evidence
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bears out this conception.  I have most of this work in a paper which should come out this summer in the J. Hyg. Camb., and I shall send you a reprint.  The complex process, which I discussed with you previously, is a vegetative method of reproduction, whether or not it includes a truly sexual process.  The conjugation which precedes the formation of the testing nucleus is much more typical of other protista, and the resting nucleus is a central, vesicular structure.  As in most other types of cell.
Yours sincerely,
K.A. Bisset