Life's Greatest Secret
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at the Moscow Biochemistry Congress 185–6
reaction to The Double Helix 108
reaction to What is life? 17
rhino 239
whale 239, 239n
phages
defined 317
DNA amplification using 230
genome sequencing 229
Hershey and Chase’s experiments 67–8
introduction of SV40 genes 279
Jacob’s work on 155
reproduction and mRNA 166–7
T4, studies 161–2, 192
von Neumann’s enthusiasm for 31–2
phage course, Cold Spring Harbor 151, 183
phage genetics, Watson and 97
phage group
conservatism of 63, 65–6, 70
membership 65, 189, 215–16
Nobel Prizes 215
reception of Hotchkiss’s data 60
on viruses and genes 8
phenylalanine
combination of Us coding for 174, 182, 184, 186, 190, 198–9
redundancy in coding for 208
UUC coding for 198, 205–6, 211
UUU triplet coding for 209
philosophers
on cybernetics 76–7, 144
on the definition of the gene 244
on the nature of information 144, 149, 202–3, 297–303
on the significance of epigenetics 265–6
‘photo 51’ 104–5
physicochemical hypothesis 293–4
physics, apparent contradiction by biology 13
‘The Physics of living matter’ Conference, 1946 32–3
Pickstone, John 309
Pilgrim Trust lectures 50–1, 56
Pitts, Walter 24, 86
placenta, origins 245
plants
epigenetic changes 257–9
genetically modified 269–71
plasticity and epigenetics 255, 259
Pleurobrachia bachei 239
PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
Brenner’s demolition of overlapping codes 124
discovery of ‘split genes’ 221
first breaking of the genetic code 183, 186
Ochoa’s polynucleotide work 196
Pauling’s triple helix model 104
rejects Gamow’s letter 114
Szilárd declines to sponsor Nirenberg 183
pneumococci
transformation in 34–40, 44, 50, 66, 132
varying virulence of R and S strains 36–7
pneumonia mortality 35–6
Pollister, Arthur 55, 58, 62
poly(A) tail, mRNA 297
polydactyly 2
Polynesian populations 241
polynucleotides
copolynucleotides 191
Crick’s critique of 205–6
Nirenberg’s approach 176, 179, 184, 198
Ochoa’s group’s approach 189–91, 198
poly(A) problems 189–90
poly(U) coding for phenylalanine 174, 181–2, 199
work by other groups 189–90, 189n
see also oligonucleotides
polysaccharides, absent from transforming principle 41
Pontecorvo, Guido 161, 244
Portier, Paul 224
pre-mRNA 222
prion proteins 253–4
probability theory and communication 25
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences see PNAS
prokaryotes
absence of code variations 227
discovery of Archaea among 238–9
proline, codes for 185, 198, 205–6, 208, 212
promoter sequences 243
proteins
bizarre 278
contamination alleged in transforming principle 41–2, 56, 60, 64, 70
criteria for the heredity vehicle 61–2
defined 317
genes assumed to be 6–9, 55, 69, 98
information transfers with nucleic acids 136
Koltsov’s model of chromosomes 6
prions as infectious agents 253–4
protein-encoding human genes 242
protein folding
α-helix structure 95, 97, 100, 105
as function of amino acid sequence 133, 263–4, 294
and molecular chaperones 263, 265, 294
sickle-cell anaemia 127
protein function
determined by amino acid sequence 133
likely emergence 291
protein synthesis
adaptor hypothesis 121, 135, 209
amino acid sequence in 128–9
control of, as the role of genes 131
Crick’s ‘central dogma’ lecture 130–1, 135–6, 140–1, 153, 239
Crick’s ‘ideas on’ note 136, 137f
cybernetic thinking and 159
and the genetic code 153
information transfer in 168–9, 251
mechanism in eukaryotes xi negative feedback control 151–4, 153–5, 157, 168
Nirenberg’s work on 174–91
nucleic acid involvement 121–2, 128, 132
repressor hypothesis 160–1, 168
ribosome involvement 134, 165–7, 180
role of mRNA 169, 184
Rqc2p involvement 264–5
site of 116, 134
see also cell-free protein synthesis
protein taxonomy 140–1
proton gradients 287
Prusiner, Stanley 253–4
pseudogenes 245–8
Ptashne, Mark 171
purines (adenine and guanine)
distinguished from pyrimidines 317
poly(A) stability problems 189–90
poly(A) tail, mRNA 297
ratio of pyrimidines to 42, 91, 102, 106, 109
ultraviolet response 42
see also bases
pyrimidines (cytosine and thymine or uracil)
cytosine deamination 290
cytosine methylation 256–8
distinguished from purines 317
negative feedback control of biosynthesis 154
ratio of purines to 42, 91, 102, 106, 109
of RNA, spontaneous appearance 289
ultraviolet response 42
see also bases
pyrrolysine 225
Q
quantum physics and biology 11–12, 16, 291
Quastler, Henry
on genetics and information 81, 142, 144–5, 201–2
Information Theory symposium 84–5
R
Rad Lab project 24, 27
radiation effects on tissues 142
radioactive tracers
in cell-free protein synthesis 173–4, 178, 181–2
labelled amino acids into proteins 134–5
messenger RNA (mRNA) 212
for phage DNA and protein 66, 68
in Sanger sequencing 228
transfer RNA (tRNA) 209
see also isotopic labelling
Randall, John
MRC report 103–4
recruitment of Franklin 95–6
relations between King’s and Cambridge 98–101
as Wilkins’s supervisor at King’s 89
reading frames 192–3, 213, 223, 317
recombinant DNA 231, 279–80, 285
Redfield, Rosie 276
regulation of biotechnologies 284–5
regulator genes 160, 168–9, 242–3
regulatory framework idea 157
Reith Lectures 82, 146
religion, Schrödinger’s views 16
replicating systems
DNA replication 163–4, 235
origin 288
self-reproducing automata 32, 80, 119, 146
repressors 156–61, 168–9, 171, 243, 257, 317
research
multinational and multidisciplinary teams 311–12
spending in wartime 20
restriction enzymes 230–1, 279, 310
retroviruses 245–6, 250–2
reverse transcriptases 251–2
reviews
Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine 76–7
What is life? 17
ribosomes
defined 317
in protein synthesis 134, 165–7, 180
Rqc2p involvement 264–5
Rich, Alexander
double-stranded RNA 274
on Gamow’s contribution 119
genetic code work 122, 175
on Nirenberg’s contribution 183, 189
risk see dangers
RNA (ribonucleic acid)
absent from transforming principle 40
CRISPR application to 284
defined 317
DNA advantages over 290–1
enzymatic activities 288
identification of sequences 118
imagined role in the immune response 140
involvement in gene regulation 243
involvement in protein synthesis 58, 71–2, 116, 184
numbering of sugars and strands 212
presence in tobacco mosaic virus 64
as single or double helix 118, 274
synthetic versions 174–7, 208–10
transgenerational epigenetic factors 258–9
uracil replacing thymine in 123
variety of forms and roles 243, 289
see also messenger RNA; transfer RNA
RNA interference (RNAi) 282
RNA splicing/gene splicing 222–3, 300, 302
RNA Tie Club 118–21, 124, 217
RNA viruses see retroviruses; tobacco mosaic
‘RNA world’ hypothesis 288–91
Roberts, Richard 201, 205–6, 221, 223
Romesberg, Floyd 278
Ronwin, Edward 103
Rosenblueth, Arturo 22–3
Roundup Ready soybean 270
Rous, Peyton 48
Rowen, John 103
Royal Society 50–1, 56, 81
Royaumont Abbey colloquium 202, 205
Rutgers University, Symposium on Informational Macromolecules, 1962 204–5
S
sales of key manuscripts 25, 111, 194
Sanger, Fred
double Nobel Prize 228
human genome project and 233
insulin sequencing 120
Sanger sequencing 228–9, 231
Sarkar, Sahotra 300–1
Schneider, Tom 273
Schrödinger, Erwin
code-script idea 13–15
concerns over quantum effects 13, 291
Crick’s letter to 113
influence 15–16, 75
one-dimensional aperiodic crystals 15–17, 80, 113
What is life? book 16–19, 30, 32, 113, 268
What is life? lecture 11–15
Schultz, Jack 9, 42, 46, 58
Schwartz, Drew 122
science
changes in the practice of 310–11
parallels with the organisation of work 309
social dynamics 183, 188–9
Science (journal)
Celera version of human genome 233
on cybernetics 76, 154
Eck’s speculations on the genetic code 201
on ENCODE’s claims 247
Miller-Urey experiments 286
report of an award to Avery 50
report of arsenic-based life 276
on sickle-cell anaemia 126
synthetic organism claim 267
transcription factor binding sites 296
on Wiener’s mathematics 74
Scientific American 16, 82, 119
Crick’s article in 131–2, 135, 139
scrapie 253–4
second law of thermodynamics 12, 27–8, 30, 75
Seed, Willy 94
selective breeding of sheep 1
selenocysteine 225
self-reproducing automata 32, 80, 119, 146
semi-synthetic organisms 278
sequence hypothesis 133, 137, 263, 294
sex determination and temperature 300, 304
‘shadow biosphere’ 276–7
Shakespeare, William 272
Shannon, Claude E.
approach contrasted with Wiener’s 77–9
calculations not applicable to biology 202
contribution to cybernetics 77–9, 81
definition of information 78, 82, 144, 147, 298–9
early work at Bell Laboratories 25–7
exchanges with Wiener 78–9
on human information content 84
measures of information 298
The Theory of Communication book 77, 79f
Sharp, Phillip 223
Sharples centrifuge 39–40
sheep, selective breeding 1
shotgun sequencing 232
sickle-cell anaemia 126–7, 132, 165
side-effects see dangers
Signer, Rudolf 92–93, 99
Slyke, Van 46
Smadel, Joseph 183
social deprivation 255–6
social dynamics of science 183, 188–9, 217
Society for Experimental Biology 53, 92, 130, 147
Society of American Microbiologists 60
Spanish Flu virus 280–1
species
base pair frequencies 295
codon bias in 294–5
proportions of DNA bases 62, 90
‘specific patterns’ 139
specificity
doubts over DNA’s 42, 47, 60, 64, 70, 106
meanings of 318
nucleotide sequence variation and 57–8
sperm, DNA content 60
Speyer, Joe 191, 209
spliceosomes 222
‘split genes’ discovery 221, 223
Stacey, M(aurice) 54–5
Stahl, Frank 163–5
Stanley, Wendell 8, 46, 64
start codon
methionine and 213, 316
variants 225
Stedman, Edgar and Ellen 55, 58
Stegmann, Ulrich 300
Stent, Gunther 63, 189, 216
Stern, Kurt 70–1
Stokes, Alex 98
stop codon and variants 213, 224–6, 277
Sturtevant, Alfred 4
sulfur, radioactive 68–9
Sulston, John 231
Sutherland, John 289
Sutherland, Norma 96
Sutton, Walter 3–4, 60
Svedberg, Theodor ‘The’ 39
symbiotic origin, mitochondria 224
Symons, Robert 279
Symposium on submicroscopical morphology in protoplasm 96–7
syncytin 245
synthetic biology 277–9, 313–14
‘synthetic genetics’ 275
systematic invention phase 309–10
systems biology 307
Szathmáry, Eörs 299
Szilárd, Leo
acknowledged by Monod and Jacob 160
declines to sponsor Nirenberg 183
‘derepression of repression’ 257
Maxwell’s Demon and 27–8, 30, 76
meeting with Monod and Jacob 151–2
negative feedback in protein synthesis 151–4, 156–7
T
target theory 5–6
Tatum, Ed 10–11, 204, 215, 243–4
Taylor, Harriett 51, 55, 59, 69
as Ephrussi-Taylor 62–3, 310
Teleological mechanisms meeting, 1946 30
Teleological Society 28
‘teleology’ paper 23, 149
teleporting life 268–9
Teller, Edward 117, 120
Temin, Howard 250–2, 264
temperature and sex determination 300, 304
templates
DNA strands as 111
Gamow’s genetic code idea 114
genes acting as 72
protein strands as 6
protein synthesis and 121
template RNA see messenger RNA
terminology
Brenner on 203
Lederberg on 87, 161, 244
test tubes see cell-free protein synthesis
tetranucleotide hypothesis (Levene’s) 7, 42, 51, 54, 62, 90
textbook accounts 67–8
Theobald, Douglas 227
theoretical approaches to the genetic code 115–16, 143, 174–5, 201, 214–15
Theoretical Physics, Ninth Washington Conference, 1946 32–3
The Theory of Communication, by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver 77, 79f
thermodynamics, second law 12, 27–8, 30, 75
Thermus aquaticus (Taq) 230
Three-Man Paper (On the nature of gene mutation and gene structure) 6, 13, 17–19
thymine see pyrimidines
Timofeef-Ressovsky, Nikolai 5, 27
see also Three-Man Paper
Tissières, Alfred 177, 186
Titov, Gherman 185
tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)
amino acid sequence 174
as an RNA virus 136
claimed to be a protein crystal 8, 64
Gamow on overlapping codes and 122–3
Jim Watson’s work on 100, 108
protein synthesis in 132, 180–1
Rosalind Franklin’s work on 108
Tomkins, Gordon 172, 173, 175, 182–3
‘Mr Tompkins’ 113–14
transcription 318
transcription factors 243–4, 296, 318
transfer RNA (tRNA)
adaptor hypothesis and 135, 209
anticodon idea 211–12
Cold Spring Harbor 1966 Symposium 214
defined 318
discovery 135
Nirenberg’s work on 191
radiolabelled 209
synthetic forms 277
transformation
in E. coli 51–2, 56, 61, 63
Griffith’s discoveries on 37
in pneumococci 36–9, 63
transforming principle
alcohol extraction 41
allegations of protein contamination 41–2, 56, 60, 64, 70
identification as a nucleic acid 38, 44
identification as DNA 41, 43–4, 46–7, 49, 52
induction of mutations by 39
‘likened to a gene’ 43–4
named by Avery’s group 37
precipitation 40
in viral infections 67
transgenerational effects 256–9, 261, 263
translation 291–2, 318
transposons 245–6, 259
triple helix models 99–100, 104, 106
tRNA see transfer RNA
Troland, Leonard 7, 15, 18
Tukey, John W. 78
Turing, Alan 26, 74, 80–1
U
U-2 and U3 joke 197
UGA (opal) codon 213, 224–5, 318
ultracentrifuges 39, 41, 163, 167
ultraviolet radiation 42
Umbarger, Edwin 154–5
uncertainty principle 13
unit cell, DNA crystals 100, 104–5
universal machine concept 26, 80
universe, heat death 12
unnatural amino acids 225, 277–8
unnatural base pairs 277–8
uracil (U)
preponderance 199, 201–2, 204