Well, so I got a new car a little while ago. And though I had had personalized plates for my previous vehicle (“PLOS ORG”), I was not planning to get ones for this vehicle. And then I had a conversation in the hall about personalized plates that a colleague of mine has, and I was intrigued.
So I went to the California site where you can search for whether or not specific personalized plates are available, and I searched for a variety of possibilities. Some were available. Some were not. And then I decided to try one that I just figured would not be available. But amazingly, it was.
This personalized plate, which some call “vanity” plates, is a perfect way for me to acknowledge some people who have played very very important roles in my life and career.
The plate reads “MUTATOR”. And this is really quite good for me to pay tribute to many people including
1. My wife, Dr. Maria-Ines Benito who worked on the Mutator transposable element in corn for her PhD. (e.g. see Characterization of the maize Mutator transposable element MURA transposase as a DNA-binding protein). I note – I even ended up co-authoring a paper with her and Ginny Walbot (see below) on Mutator, defining the Mutator family of transposable elements, so the MUTATOR plate works for me too. See Sequence similarity of putative transposases links the maize Mutator autonomous element and a group of bacterial insertion sequences.
2. My wife’s PhD advisor Ginny Walbot, who is one of the grand gurus of studies of the Mutator transposable element (see more here).
3. My PhD Advisor Phil Hanawalt who introduced me to DNA repair and mutation processes and mutator genes supported me as I worked extensively on evolution of “mutator” genes including MutS and MutL. See for example A phylogenomic study of the MutS family of proteins and A phylogenomic study of DNA repair genes, proteins, and processes.
4. Jeffrey H. Miller who did pioneering work on mutator genes in E. coli and other organisms (see some detail here) and who also helped build my career in various ways including by organizing and then eventually inviting me to co-organize the Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomes meeting.
5. Richard Lenski who has done spectacular work on microbial evolution and on the role that mutator strains / mutations play in such evolution. In addition to being a great colleague over the years, he helped transform my PhD work via an interaction at a Gordon Conference when I was working on adaptive mutation in E. coli.
So, yes, the “MUTATOR” license plate is a bit about vanity for me. I think it is cool. I like to think of myself as a “MUTATOR” in various ways and I also have done work on and off again on mutation processes and mutator strains and genes. But really, the best part for me is that it pays tribute to my wife and a collection of great scientists who helped shape my career.
Jonathan Eisen's Lab 