The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides [100]
“Leonard!” Phyllida said. “So nice to meet you at last.”
This snapped Leonard out of his daze. “Hi there,” he said. He came forward and held out his hand. Phyllida looked momentarily startled, but then shook Leonard’s hand and said, “I hope we’re not interrupting you.”
“No, I was just doing some grunt work. I apologize for the smell in here. Some people don’t like it.”
“All in the name of science,” Phyllida said. She introduced Alwyn.
If Phyllida was surprised by Leonard’s appearance, she didn’t show it. She immediately started talking about Dr. MacGregor’s jumping genes, recounting everything she’d learned from her dinner conversation. Then she asked Leonard to explain his work.
“Well,” Leonard said, “we’re working with yeast, and this is where we grow the yeast. This contraption here is called a shaker table. We put the yeast in there to aerate it.” He opened the lid and removed a flask filled with yellow liquid. “Let me show you.”
He led them outside to the main room and set the flask on the table. “The experiment we’re running has to do with the mating of yeast.”
Phyllida raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t know yeast were so interesting. Dare I ask the details?”
As Leonard began to explain the research he was involved in, Madeleine relaxed. This was the kind of thing Phyllida liked: to be informed by experts in the field, any field.
Leonard had taken a glass straw from a drawer and inserted it into the flask. “What I’m doing now is I’m pipetting some yeast onto a slide, so we can take a look at it.”
“God, pipette!” Alwyn said. “I haven’t heard that word since high school.”
“There are two kinds of yeast cells, haploid cells and diploid cells. Haploid cells are the only type that mate. They come in two types: a cells and alpha cells. In mating, the a cells go for the alpha cells and the alpha cells go for the a cells.” He put the slide into the microscope. “Take a look.”
Phyllida stepped forward and bent her face to the lens.
“I don’t see anything,” she said.
“You have to focus it here.” When Leonard raised his hand to show her, it shook slightly, and he took hold of the edge of the table.
“Oh, there they are,” Phyllida said, focusing by herself.
“See them? Those are yeast cells. If you look close, you’ll notice that some are bigger than the others.”
“Yes!”
“The big ones are the diploid cells. The haploids are smaller. Focus on the smaller ones, the haploids. Some should be elongating. That’s what they do prior to mating.”
“I see one that has a … protuberance on one end.”
“That’s called a shmoo. That’s a haploid getting ready to mate.”
“A shmoo?” Alwyn said.
“It’s from Li’l Abner,” Leonard explained. “The comic strip.”
“How old do I look to you?” Alwyn said.
“I remember Li’l Abner,” Phyllida said, still gazing into the microscope. “He was the country bumpkin. Not very amusing, as I recall.”
“Tell them about the pheromones,” Madeleine said.
Leonard nodded. “Yeast cells send out pheromones, which are sort of like a chemical perfume. A cells send out an a pheromone and alpha cells send out an alpha pheromone. That’s how they attract each other.”
Phyllida stared into the microscope for another minute, giving little reports on what she was seeing. Finally she lifted her head. “Well, I’ll never think of yeast in quite the same way. Do you want to take a look, Ally?”
“No thanks. I’m finished with mating,” Alwyn said sourly.
Ignoring this, Phyllida said, “Leonard, I understand about the haploids and the diploids. But tell me what you’re trying to learn about them.”
“We’re trying to figure out why the progeny of a given cell division can acquire different developmental fates.”
“Oh, dear. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s not that complicated. Remember the two types of haploid cells, a type and alpha type?”
“Yes.”
“Well, of each of those haploids, there are two types as well. We call them mother cells and daughter cells. Mother cells can bud and create new cells. Daughter cells can’t. Mother cells can also switch their sex—go from being an a to