The First Twenty-Five Years Folia microbiologica is entering into its 25th year and, this being

a young age both by human and by journal s tandards - - but still a quarter of a century, it gives us an occasion to look back at those formative years and critically examine what has been achieved and whether the journal has contr ibuted to the dissemination and development of scientific thought in the way it was expected to when it was founded.

We should like to go back here to the "heroic" years of Socialist science in the fifties and trace the main lines of development of Czechoslovak micro- biology as they are reflected on the pages of Folia microbiologica.

After World War II , Czechoslovakia emerged as a relatively materially unscathed and morally strengthened country of two nationalities for whom the prospect of freedom from foreign occupation was something tha t nations which never in their history have suffered from foreign domination can grasp only with difficulty. The surge of creativity and intellectual act ivi ty then wit- nessed had only rarely been seen before in our history. The scientific com- muni ty was not particularly strong bu t it could build on the fine and progres- sive tradition of the pre-war years and it found an appreciative ear in the ranks of the highest s tate representatives who clearly perceived the need for science in a country tha t wanted to become a wor thy member of the new world system then being created.

The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences was founded in 1952 as a complex of research institutes, ranging from archaeology to zoology, with the aim of providing a broad and secure basis for thousands of scientists who were ready to devote their best skills to making science a productive force in the society. But already this had been preceded by spontaneous and not always professionally organized scientific endeavour such as, to pu t the focus on microbiology, the second post-war meeting, the g l I t h Congress of Czecho- slovak Microbiology in September 1950. This was an event at tract ing over 500 microbiologists from a do~en countries and it was herMded in the press with daily commentaries enti t led "New vistas for microbiology", "Through prevention against infection", "Czechoslovak microbiologists and the peace programme", and the like.

I t was only obvious tha t a science with so much official suport and one with an active research programme should have its proper communication channel. And thus in 1956 a Czech-language journal ~eskoslovenskd mikro- biologic was launched which continued for three years (volumes I - - I I I of the present journal) under the management of the then Inst i tu te of Biology. The editor-in-chief was a man who was prominent in organizing modern, viable and useful microbiology in post-war Czechoslovakia, Academician IvAn MXLEK, who is celehrat ing his 70th b i r thday at the very t ime these lines are being written. And all the subsequent and p r e s e n t editors were members of the Ins t i tu te he helped to found as the Czechoslovak Acade:- my of Sciences was created. The editorial secretary was then Dr. J. Mcrcv- ~A and the editorial panel had eleven other members.

However, a microbiological journal was required that would provide a publication forum for the ever increasing numbers of microbiologists in this par t of the world and tha t would print its papers in .the language tha t even then was considered as the lingua franca of science. I t was thus tha t Folia microbiologica became an English-language sequel to the ~eskoslovenskd mikrobiologie, being published by the Publishing House o f the Czechoslovak

2 25 YEARS Vol. 25

Academy of Sciences under of editorial management (since 1962) of the Ins t i tu te of Microbiology. Since 1964, the Czechoslovak Society for Micro- biology has been a co-sponsor of the journal. The name Folia was chosen for a number of journals published in Czechoslovakia (Folia biologica, F. geo- botanica et phytotaxonomica, F. morphologica, F. parasitologica, F. zoologica) to set them apart from journals published in other Socialist countries.

The journal has always been directed b y an editor-in-chief and managed by an executive editor. The following scientists devoted their energies to these functions at one time or another:

Editor-in-chief Executive editor IVAN M~LEK 1956--1970 JIf~i MACURA 1956--1963 J i l l MACURA 1970--1978 VLADIMiR VI~TER 1963--1970 ARNOw KOTYK 1978-- ARNO~T KOTYK 1970--1978

JOSEF CUDLiN 1978--

An editorial assistant has always been with us; for the last 17 years this position has been held by Dr. E. BRY~DOVg.

The journal was designed to publish papers in general, technical and agri- cultural microbiology that are of general significance and tha t contribute in a fundamental way to the understanding of various aspects of microbiology. The representat ion of these branches of microbiology differed as years went b y - - most often not because less would be done in one and more in another discipline bu t rather because more specialized journals have since appeared and many authors felt tha t their work would find greater acclaim there. Thus, inevitably, the Folia microbiologica has not represented all of Czecho- slovak microbiology throughout this past quarter of a century.

A summary of the journal 's extent and of the origin of contributions follows.

I t is instructive to analyze the volumes from the point of view of character of the papers published. Taking volumes 8--13 as a representat ive sample we may form the following table:

Volume Percentage of papers from

basic research developmental research technical 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 fields

811963 43 9 0 0 24 0 11 6 6 9/1964 54 10 2 6 8 2 18 0 0

1011965 39 12 0 2 12 7 18 0 9 12~1967 53 9 14 21 0 0 2 1 0 13/1968 63 11 6 6 0 0 11 0 2

In the table, 1 stands for the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 2 for the universities, 3 for applied research insti tutes belonging to various ministries, 4 for foreign sources.

I t is obvious tha t there has always been a predominance of papers from basic research and tha t the t rend can be seen to rise tbrough the years.

1980 2 5 Y E A R S ]

Volume/Year Total number of pages

Papers f rom Papers from Total n u m b e r the Ins t i tu t e otherCzecho- Papers f rom

of papers of :Micro- slovak other countriea biology inst i tut ions

1/1956 288 38 19 19 0 2/1957 388 60 32 28 0 3/1958 408 62 37 22 3 4/1959 408 51 26 23 2 5]1960 416 56 24 29 3 6/1961 412 60 29 27 4 7/1962 412 56 21 30 5 8/1963 384 56 28 25 3 9/1964 388 58 26 29 3

10/1965 376 49 28 20 1 11/1966 536 67 31 30 6 12/1967 572 76 31 29 16 13/1968 576 74 34 33 7 14]1969 604 91 59 24 15/1970 504 63 30 26 7 16/1971 556 64 31 20 13 17/1972 520 69 35 17 17 18/1973 528 63 17 27 19 19/1974 536 74 31 28 15 26/1975 520 71 20 33 18 21/1976 512 58 19 30 9 22/1977 528 63 27 22 14 23/1978 512 82 27 30 25 24/1979 524 67 18 26 23

Total 11 408 1 528 680 627 221 % -- 100 44.5 41.0 14.5 Averago

per year 475 63.7 28.3 26.1 9.2

This, by the way, goes hand in hand with the distribution of papers read at the various congresses of the CzechoslovaIc Society for Microbiology which looks briefly as follows:

Congress Year Number of papers read by authors from

Czeoh. Aead. Sci. Universit ies Applied research

3 r d 1963 30 31 41 4 th 1964 35 14 8 5 t h 1965 48 28 24 6 t h 1967 69 28 40 7 th 1968 95 61 67

I t is perhaps wor thy of note tha t more than one-half of the Czechoslovak authors are graduates of the Faculty of Science of the Charles University in Prague.

We find the foreign contributions a challenge and are pleased to have published some bet ter papers not only from countries tha t lack their own

4 25 YEARS Vol. 25

publication means bu t also from those that have them in plenty. The total of foreign contributions can be split up as follows:

Country of origin Number of papers Per cent

India 51 25.8 USSR 31 16.7 Egypt 18 9.1 USA 15 7.6 France 12 6.1 Great Britain 11 5.6 German Democratic Republic 10 5.1 Federal Republic of Germany 7 3.5 Canada 6 3.0 Poland 5 2.5 Hungary 5 2.5 Australia 4 2.0 Bulgaria 4 2.8 Argentina 3 1.5 I t ~ y 2 1.0 Japan 2 1.0 Venezuela 2 1.0

One paper each from Bangladesh, Cuba, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Pakistan, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Zambia.

Obviously the preponderant number of papers have come and still do come from Czechoslovak laboratories. In some fields, the journal has been the leading communication forum and has published some of the more important , and often foundation-laying, papers in a number of fields for which. Czecho- slovak microbiology is known abroad.

Starting with t axonomy as a very general scientific discipline one cannot omit the progress in the numerical t axonomy of yeasts, much under the single-minded leadership of Dr. A. KOCKOV/~-KRATOCltV~LOV_~ of Bratislava. This has now become a highly computerized field where a lot is yet to be achieved - - hardly any other group of organisms has undergone so much renaming in view of modern techniques as yeasts have.

Cytology or microbial morphology has always been a popular subject in Folia microbiologica. Regeneration of yeast cells from protoplasts without a wall p~imer (0. NE~AS), visualization of bud and birth scars in yeast using fluorescent primulin (E. STREIBLOV/~), intra- and intergeneric fusion of yeast protoplasts (A. Svo~oDx) are some of the topics of almost a hundred papers (including congress reports) published on the yeast cell wal l and the con- sequences of its removal. There have been papers on the cytology of bacilli, wood-ro~ting fungi, and a var ie ty of other organisms. I t is in this contexb that the pioneering papers of V. V~TER should be mentioned. He discovered the formation of disulphide bonds during sporulation which apparent ly increases the radiation resistance of spores. He also showed the existence of the so-cMled microcyclic sporulation ( spore -> ce l l -~ spore) without an intervening vegetat ive growth phase.

1980 25 YEARS $

One of the "firsts" in general microbiology was the discovery of bacterial proteases and their role in the turnover of proteins and in the growth phases of microorganisms (J. CHALOVPXA).

It is in recent years that work on chromosome replication and cell division on the molecular level has become more fashionable, e.g. on intermittent starvation for thymine in Escheriehia coli and repetitive replication during amino acid starvation in lactobacilli. There have been a number of papers of enzymological character and some highly original work on proteases, ~-ga- lactosidase, nitrate reductase, penicillin amidohydrolase and pectinases has appeared here.

Molecular geneticists have published several dozen papers. Transformation of D~qA, analysis of competence, the role of endonucleases, attempts to chart the genetic map of mycobacteria, the role of plasmids in the transfer of resistance and other markers - - ah this has been the work of the department of bacterial genetics of the Institute of Microbiology. Highly significaJnt papers on the repair of UV-damaged DNA, its dependence on protein synthesis, etc., are the work of an active group in Bratislava (M. SEDLIAKOV&).

A continuous flow of papers arrives from the Laboratory of Cell Membrane Transport of the Institute of Microbiology. The transport of monosaccharides, disaccharides, polyols and amino acids in different yeast species has been analyzed for the first time and some theoretical papers on carrier kinetics appeared here. The range embraces measurement of intracellular pH with acidic dyes, densitometric estimation of solute transport, specificities of carriers, regulation of uptake activities as well as estimation of life times of transport proteins.

The Folia microbiologica has been the publication forum for the field of natural products of microorganism~ the biology and improvement of their producers, the biochemistry of their formation and the physico-chemical methods of structure determination. The Department of Antibiotics (sub- sequently renamed Department of Biogenesis of Natural Products; headed by Dr. Z. VAt,K) pioneered the combination of theory with high-level laboratory work (1) in the biosynthesis of erythromycin (the first experimental proof of the propionate rule), (2) in the biosynthesis of glutarimidcs and nystatin (the backbone of cycloheximide is formed from ma]onate units; methionine may serve as methyl donor); (3) in the self-detoxication reaction of strepto- mycete mutants by the formation of an aromatic ring; (4) in the general application of theoretical conclusions to the synthesis of griseofulvin, fulvic acid, etc., from precursors containing four and three acetate units; (5) in the genetics of tetracycline synthesis; (6) in the biosyntt:csis of daunomycinone and z-rhodomycinone series.

Work on ergot alkaloids has been traditionally led by Dr. Z. ~:~EHACEK whose papers on the physiological and biochemical role of these alkaloids, pa~%ieularly in the regulation of cell metabolism, are of major significance.

Dr. V. MUSiLEK'S group has been most active in the field of basidiomycete physiology, the work culminating in a successful isolation and commercial production of an effective antifungal antibiotic.

A few words must be said about the years of publication activity of the Research Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry in our journal. Besides early work on penicillin and its biological hydrolysis several dozen papers were devoted to biological transformations, particularly hydroxylations, of sterols,

6 25 YEARS Vol 25

ranging from cortisol and related hormones to 19-hydroxy-derivatives. A var ie ty of microorganisms were tested and the best were selected for any given transformation. Some of these were ou t to use on an industrial scale.

This brings us to the field of technical microbiology which has always loomed large in the work of the Institute of Microbiology. Continuous cm- t ivat ion of microorganisms, yeast in particular, is a general technique tha t has gained popular i ty especially through the Prague congresses on the subject. Our journal has published 14 annual critical reviews of the subject with complete bibliography - - some 500 copies of which were sent to experts all over the world. This practice was suspended for several years due to adminis- t rat ive measures bu t it is hoped to resume soon. This interruption notwith- standing, some highly original theoretical papers are being published more or less continuously.

I t was particularly in the fields like this tha t the multidiseiplinary charac- ter of the journal has been of value - - mathematical , technical and physio- logical aspects of continuous cultivation could be published in the same journal.

The problems of fermentat ion production of amino acids b y Coryne- bacterium glutamicum were t rea ted here in detail.

Continuous cultivation was a technique tha t was introduced b y the late J . MACURA even into soil microbiology. Regular contributions from this field comprised microbial transformations of organic mat ter in soil, includ- ing fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, relationships between soil microorganisms and plant roots (the question of rhizosphere), formation and act ivi ty of soil enzymes, regulation of microbial populations in soil, etc. The immediate applicabili ty of these findings to agriculture has always been appreciated. The importance of these studies in the sad context of the ecological crisis cannot be overestimated.

I t is particularly during the first half oi ~ its existence tha t this journal was the principal communication channel for Czechoslovak immunologists, their main laboratories being concentrated under the direction of J. ~TERZL. Some of these papers belong to the most-cited publications of all Czecho- slovak microbiology. The highlights are the following: isolation of a nucleo- protein form of nascent ant ibody; ant ibody formation by isolated cells grown in vivo in newborn rabbits and chick embryos; inhibition of ant ibody response after a repeated prolonged immunization; effect of 6-mercapto- purine on ant ibody response; elucidation of infective processes of staphylo- coccus and anthrax types; production of lymphokines b y cells in delayed hypersensitivity. The principal t rends voiced in the Folia microbiologica included the effects of bacterial endotoxins, immunology of germfree animals, the inductive phase of the immune response. Cooperation of H and L chains of immunoglobulins was first demonstra ted to play a role in the binding site of the antibody. A good deal has been published on mathematical modelling of the ant ibody response, both from the Prague insti tute and from a Moscow laboratory.

The first quarter of a century has not only demonstrated the viability of the journal but taught us to handle its publication more efficiently.

Now in retrospect one tends to regret tha t the extent of the journal has not increased over the last 15 years in spite of the fact tha t the number of manuscripts submit ted has at least doubled. The editors are hard put coping

1980 25 YEARS 7

with the flood of manuscripts but the lack of increase in size has resulted - - so we feel - - in an increase in quality. Papers are reviewed more carefully and more often rejected and, quite generally, the authors are asked to reduce the size of their manuscript.

The going is not always smooth. All the work associated with the publica- tion and contacts with authors (save for the actual printing process) including revisions, redrawing of figures, improving the language of the papers, has always been done by two, at most three, enthusiasts in the editorial office, for none of whom this is a furl-time job. We only enlist the help of translators, typists and a graphic artist m all manuscripts are retyped in the office and all line drawings are redrawn before they are sent to the printers.

Looking back at the formal aspect of the journal we are often amused by what bizarre pieces of information have slipped through our - - alas, very imperfect - - scrutiny. To end in a lighter vein - - and perhaps to provide examples for some future style manual on how not to write publications, we at tach here a selection of figures and tables tha t we found particularly entertaining.

TAi~: V. 8elmm~io 2*-faetorial plan for IS vadablea in tmmformed eoordin&tes

Levels of faotors V a m a t ....

I ' 1 , I . I 1 + 1 +1 -I-1 + 1 + 1 2 --1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 3 +1 --1 § + t -i-I 4 --1 - 1 +1 +1 -I-1 6 + 1 § --1 +I + 1 6 --1 + 1 - 1 + 1 + 1 7 +1 --1 --1 +1 +1 8 --1 --1 --1 -I-1 + 1 9 +1 +1 -t.-1 --1 +1

10 - 1 +1 +1 --1 +1 11 +1 --1 +1 - 1 +1 12 --1 --1 +1 --1 -I-I 13 +1 +1 --1 --1 +1 14 --1 +1 --1 --1 +1 15 +1 --1 --1 - - I +1 le - 1 - 1 - 1 - I +1 17 +1 -;-1 -I-1 +1 - 1 18 - 1 + 1 -+-1 + 1 --1 19 + 1 --1 + 1 - -t-I --1 20 --1 --1 -bl -I-1 --1 21 +1 +1 --1 -t-I --1 22 --1 +1 --1 +1 --1 23 + 1 --1 --1 + l --1 94 --1 --1 --1 +1 --1 25 + 1 + 1 + 1 --1 --1 2e --1 + l + 1 - 1 - I 27 +1 - - I +1 --1 --1 28 --1 --1 +1 --1 --1 29 -I-1 +1 --1 --1 --1 30 --1 +1 --1 --1 --1 31 +1 --1 --1 --1 --1 3S --1 --1 --1 --1 --1

8 25 Y E A R S Vol. 25

A~,o of ~pores (in days)

Time of exposure of Slmres to

ethylene oxide (in hours)

Time of ineubstion of e ~ spores (in days)

$ 4 6

o o + + +

$ 0 + + +

4--14 + +

+ +

+ +

Pv

30"

20 '

I 0

1980 25 YEAI~S 9

| 0 25 YEARS 1980

These are published here as a fraction of a more humorous treatment of the past 25 years.

We were aided in preparing this editorial essay by reminiscences provided by some of our perennial contributors and members, past or .present, of the editorial board. I n partivular, our thanks are due to Academicians or Professors D. BLA~KOW~, C. JO~N, F. K~RXLEK, I. MXLEK, O. NE~AS, J. SE~FERT, J. ~TERZL and to Drs. J. C~IZ)~r~KA, O. H A ~ , J. PLAC~, Z. ~EHA~EK, J. ~I~ICA, M. SEDL~KOWl and Z. VA~K.

THE EDITORS