A stopover in Tübingen

Mundry meets the virus

Now the figure of Karl-Wolfgang Mundry, who was later to play a key role in Stuttgart, took to the scientific stage. Having studied Botany for 6 semesters in Göttingen, his fascination with the question as to the nature of viruses took him to Melchers in Tübingen. Late in the summer of 1949 he cycled around 600 km to talk to Melchers. The effort paid off: from 1950 onwards Mundry was able to work as a PhD student in Melchers' laboratory. He had soon found a research question for his thesis: Can virus mutability be influenced empirically?

Naturally occurring mutations of virus strains were the starting point for his research. In an attempt to increase the mutation rate, Mundry exposed the tobacco mosaic virus to x-rays and UV radiation, but without success. Thus in a second series of experiments he changed the conditions: he now used the entire plant host (in vivo conditions) and simply exposed it to a higher culture temperature. This actually did increase the mutation rate. This result formed the conclusion of Mundry's PhD thesis in 1954.