ABSTRACT
Edwin M. Southern is a professor emeritus at the University of Oxford. He is perhaps best known for development of the “Southern blot” (Dr. Southern was at the University of Edinburgh when he wrote his landmark paper). The Southern blot provided a scientific breakthrough by allowing scientists to detect a particular DNA sequence without first purifying it from the rest of the genome; the basic method involves the transfer of the DNA to a membrane, followed by detection with a specific probe. Although few people perform Southern blots as originally carried out by Southern, due in part to the more recent technique of the polymerase chain reaction, the basic concept continues to play an important role in molecular biology.
KEYWORDS: autophagy, lysosome, stress, vacuole, yeast
Obviously the Southern blot was named after Edwin Southern.1 Hence, it is appropriate to capitalize the name “Southern,” as a proper noun, when referring to the corresponding blot. Subsequently, scientists developed the “northern blot” for detecting RNA (also the “reverse northern blot ” using an RNA probe to detect DNA),2 followed by the “western blot” for detecting particular proteins.3,4 Without going into the history of these names, I think it is fair to say that they were inspired by the “Southern” blot.
Apparently finding this “direction”-oriented naming system irresistible, scientists have since come up with the “eastern blot” as a method to detect post-translational modifications (an extension of the western blot),5 the “far-eastern blot” for lipid analysis,6 the “far-western blot” (also called a “west-western blot”), which is a variation on the western blot that uses a protein other than an antibody to detect the protein of interest,7 the “middle eastern blot” for analysis of mRNA,8 the “northwestern blot” to detect RNA-protein interactions,9 and the “southwestern blot” that can be used to identify DNA-binding proteins.9 There may be other such names that I am not familiar with.
Despite this proliferation of blotting names, other than the Southern blot, none of them is actually named after a person. Therefore, except for Southern blot, the word that precedes “blot” should not be capitalized. I also see instances of people capitalizing blot, as in “Western Blot,” which I suppose follows from the mistaken idea that “western” should have been capitalized (Fig. 1). Therefore, to save editors' and copyeditors' time, and to demonstrate your own linguistic savvy, please use lowercase letters in all instances when referring to all blots except for Southern blot.
Figure 1.
Southern playing draw poker with his imaginary opponent “Western.” Drawing by Elise N. Griswold based on a concept by Daniel J. Klionsky.
Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.
Funding
This work was supported by NIH grant GM053396 to DJK.
References
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