MITOCHONDRIAL DNA
Vintage photograph, 1963
MITOCHONDRIAL DNA – [NASS, Sylvan & Margit NASS-EDELSON.] Gelatin silver photograph using electron microscopy, [Stockholm University, Wenner-Gren Institute for Experimental Biology] c.1963.

193 x 298mm on a 277 x 356mm board mount (stains and wear), old pencil captions on the mount identifying "Lysosome," "Mitokondia" and "Endoplasmic Reticulum." Provenance: Sylvan Nass – by descent to the present owners. Included with the lot is a letter signed by David Nass, son of Sylvan and his second wife Ulla Nass stating that, to the best of his and his brother's knowledge, the present photograph is a unique image and that there are no similar prints or negatives in his immediate family's collection.

Vintage photograph by the discoverers of mitochondrial DNA: "the second genome." In 1963, Margit and Sylvan Nass, a married couple at Stockholm University, were the first to discover DNA outside of the cell's nucleus. Using the lab's newly acquired electron microscope, they photographed chick mitochondria, noted the characteristic staining patterns indicative of DNA, and used further isolation and staining experiments to confirm its presence. It took this direct visualization to convince skeptics that eukaryotic cells are more genetically complicated than first thought. Although the DNA of mitochondria (which originated as cellular parasites) is a tiny, tiny portion of the cell's total genetic material, it is equally fascinating, being circular in form, passed down entirely from mothers, and giving rise to the concept of "Mitochondrial Eve," the woman from whom all living humans inherited their mitochondrial DNA.