Dr George B. Johnson (born 11 June 1942, Newport News, Virginia) is a science writer who wrote the weekly column "On Science" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He is also a biology professor at Washington University and a genetics professor at their school of medicine.
Johnson got his B.A. in English from Dartmouth College in 1964. His interests changed and as a result went on to earn his M.A. in biochemistry, also at Dartmouth College.
He was granted his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1972, his thesis being on population biology.
Johnson was a Research Fellow at Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Plant Biology, Stanford, California, throughout 1975 and 1976. He was made Associate Professor of Biology at Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri, during 1976-1980. He was also Associate Professor of Genetics at the School of Medicine from 1976-1981. He was also Lector, Genetisk Institute at Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, in April and August 1977.
In 1980 he moved onto the post of Professor of Biology at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, a post he held until 2004. He was also Professor of Genetics there from 1981 to 2004. During the years 1987 and 1990 he served as Director at The Living World education center, St. Louis Zoo.
Since 2004 he works as Professor Emeritus of Biology at Washington University.
Wild type and mutant stocks of Aspergillus nidulans, (with R.W. Barratt and W.N. Ogata), 1965, Genetics 52: 233-234
Purification and characterization of glutamic acid dehydrogenase from Escherichia coli strain K-12. Master's thesis, Dartmouth College, 1966
Analysis of enzyme variation in natural populations of the butterfly Colias eurytheme, 1971, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 68: 997-1001
The relationship of enzyme polymorphism to metabolic function, 1971, Nature 232: 347-348
The selective significance of biochemical polymorphism in Colias butterflies, Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, 1972
Enzyme polymorphisms: Evidence that they are not selectively neutral, 1972, Nature New Biol. 237: 170-171
The relationship of enzyme polymorphism to species diversity, 1973, Nature 242: 193-194
Enzyme polymorphism and biosystematics: The hypothesis of selective neutrality, 1973, Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics, 4: 93-116
The importance of substrate variability to enzyme polymorphism, 1973, Nature New Biol. 243: 1 51-153
On the hypothesis that polymorphic enzyme alleles are selectively neutral. I. The evenness of allele frequency distribution, (with M.W. Feldman), 1973, Theor. Pop. Biol. 4: 209-221
Enzyme polymorphism and metabolism, 1974, Science 184: 28-37
On the estimation of effective number of alleles from electrophoretic data, 1974, Genetics 78: 771-776
Studying genetic variation in human populations, 1974, Jour. Heredity 65: 260-261
The use of internal standards in electrophoretic surveys of enzyme polymorphism, 1975, Biochemical Genetics 13: 833-847
Enzyme polymorphism and adaptation, 1975, Stadler Genetics Symposium 7: 91-116
Mechanisms of evolution and speciation, 1975, In LIFE: THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SPECIES (T. Lane, Ed.). Mosby Publishing Company, St. Louis, Missouri.
Polymorphism and predictability at the alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase locus in Colias butterflies: Gradients in allele frequencies within a single population, 1976, Biochemical Genetics 14: 403-426
Genetic polymorphism and enzyme function, 1976, In THE MOLECULAR STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION, Chapter 3, pp. 46-59 (F. Ayala, Ed.), Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts.
Hidden alleles at the alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase locus in Colias butterflies, 1976, Genetics 83: 149-167
Enzyme polymorphism and adaptation in Alpine butterflies, 1976, In EVOLUTION WITHIN POPULATIONS, Ann. Mo. Bot. Garden 63: 248-261
Enzyme polymorphism in the butterfly Colias: Selection on metabolic phenotypes, 1976, Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook 75: 440- 449
Characterization of electrophoretically hidden variation in the butterfly Colias, 1976, Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook 75: 449-456
Factors altering the gel sieving behavior of proteins: The effect of deuterium oxide, 1976, Carnegie Institution of Washington Yearbook 75: 456-459
Evaluation of the stepwise mutation model of electrophoretic mobility: Comparison of the gel sieving behavior of alleles at the esterase-5 locus of Drosophila pseudoobscura, 1977, Genetics 87: 139-157. Abstract: Genetics 83: s36 (1976)
Characterization of electrophoretically cryptic variation in the alpine butterfly Colias meadii, 1977, Biochemical Genetics 15: 665-693
Hidden heterogeneity among electrophoretic alleles, 1977, In MEASURING SELECTION IN NATURAL POPULATIONS (F. Christiansen, T. Fenchel, Eds.), Springer-Verlag, Berlin: 223-244
Assessing electrophoretic similarity: The problem of hidden heterogeneity, 1977, Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics, Vol. 8: 309-328
Isozymes, allozymes, and enzyme polymorphism: Structural constraints on polymorphic variation, 1978, Isozymes: Current Topics in Biological and Medical Research, Vol. 2: 1-21
Structural flexibility of isozyme variants: Genetic variants in Drosophila disguised by cofactor and subunit binding, 1978, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 75: 395-399. Abstract: Genetics 86: s33, (1977)
Genetically controlled variation in conformation of enzymes, 1979, Prog. Nucleic Acid Res. Molec. Biol. 22: 293-326
Genetic variation in the physiological phenotype, 1979, In POPULATION BIOLOGY OF PLANTS (O. Solbrig, S. Jain, G. Johnson & P. Raven, Eds.), Columbia Univ. Press, N.Y.: p. 62-83
Genetic polymorphism at enzyme loci, 1979, In PHYSIOLOGICAL GENETICS (J. Scandalios, Ed.), Academic Press, N.Y.: 239-273
Post-translational modification as a potential explanation of high levels of enzyme polymorphism (with V. Finnerty), 1979, Genetics 9l: 695-722
Gene expression in Drosophila: Characterization of the enzymes produced by certain complementary maroon-like heterozygotes (with V. Finnerty, and M. McCarron), 1979, Molec. Gen. Genet., 172: 37-43
The genetics of electrophoretic variation: a response (with V. Finnerty), 1979, Genetics 92: 357-360
Increasing the resolution of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis by varying the degree of gel cross-linking, 1979, Biochemical Genetics 7: 499-5l6
Unvermutete Genetische Variation an Enzymorten (with V. Loeschcke), 1979, Biologisches Zentralblatt, 98: l63-l73
Structural vs. post-translational components of genic variation (with V. Finnerty), 1979, Genetics 92: 683-684
POPULATION BIOLOGY OF PLANTS, 1980, Editor (with O. Solbrig, S. Jain & P. Raven), Columbia Univ. Press, N.Y.
Polyploidy, plants, and electrophoresis (with B. Carr), 1980. In POLYPLOIDY (W. Lewis, Ed.), Academic Press, N.Y.
Post-translational modification of xanthine dehydrogenase in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster (with D. Hartl and V. Finnerty). 1981. Genetics 98: 817-831
Gel sieving electrophoresis: A description of procedures and analysis. In METHODS OF BIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS (D. Glick, Ed.), 1983, Interscience Publishers, New York.
Phylogenetic Implications of Ribosomal DNA Restriction Site Variation in the Plant Family Onagraceae (with J. Crisci, E. Zimmer, P. Hoch, C. Mudd and N. Pan), 1990, Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard 77: 523-538
Texts
BIOLOGY (with P. Raven and latest edition with Jonathan Losos and Susan Singer), 1986, 1989, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.
UNDERSTANDING BIOLOGY (with P. Raven), 1988, 1991, 1995. Wm. C. Brown Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.
ENVIRONMENT (with P. Raven and L. Berg) 1993, 1996. Saunders Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
BIOLOGY VISUALIZING LIFE. 1993, 1997. Holt Rinehart Winston, Austin, Texas.
HUMAN BIOLOGY: CONCEPTS AND ISSUES, 1994. W.C. Brown Publishing Co., Dubuque, Iowa.
BIOLOGY: PRINCIPLES AND EXPLORATIONS, 1995, 2000 (with P. Raven). Holt Rinehart Winston, Austin, Texas.
HOW SCIENTISTS THINK: KEY EXPERIMENTS IN GENETICS, 1995. W.C. Brown Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.
THE LIVING WORLD, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2006. McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa.
