by Matthew Cobb
25Francis Crick at a house party, mid 1960s © Guy Selby-Lowndes/ Science Photo Library
26Jacques Monod with Leo Szilárd ©Photograph by Esther Bubley. Copyright Jean Bubley
27Crick with Benzer, courtesy of Wellcome Library, London
28Letters between Seymour Benzer and Francois Jacob © Institut Pasteur
29Banner in Marshall Nirenberg’s laboratory © The Marshall W. Nirenberg Papers /US National Library of Medicine /Courtesy of Marshall W. Nirenberg
30Asilomar conference © The Maxine Singer Papers/US National Library of Medicine /Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine
While every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders of illustrations, the author and publishers would be grateful for information about any illustrations where they have been unable to trace them, and would be glad to make amendments in further editions.
INDEX
Note
The index covers the main text and glossary only; page references beyond 315 are glossary entries. The suffixes f and n indicate treatment in a figure and a footnote respectively on the pages indicated.
A
acquired characteristics, inheritance 138, 260
adaptations
enzymatic (later induction) 152–3
and Lamarckian inheritance 261
adaptive hypothesis (genetic code) 293–4
adaptor hypothesis (tRNA) 121, 135, 209
adenine see purines
Adrian, Edgar 82n
alien life forms 275
alkaptonuria 11
Allison, Tony 126
α-helix structure 95, 97, 100, 105
alternative splicing 223, 242
Altman, Sidney 288
Alu sequences 245
amino acids
acidity and codon structure 292
code(s) for phenylalanine 174, 182, 184–6, 198–9, 206, 208–9
defined 316
encoding by DNA base sequence 124–6, 133
genetic code specification of x, 114, 116–17, 199
Miller-Urey experiments yielding 286
nature of RNA link to 292–4
need for DNA to code twenty 71–2, 117, 179
occurrence in comets 286
patterns, as clues to the genetic code 120, 122–3
physical template model 72
RNA Tie Club names 118
in the RNA world 291
sequence changes in A and S haemoglobin 127–8, 165
sequence determining protein function 133, 263–4
synthetic RNA triplets and 210
unnatural amino acids 225, 277–8, 284
Anderson, Thomas 67
André, Christian 2
Anfinsen, Christian 264
anthrax 37
anti-aircraft systems 21–4
anti-sense RNA 243
anticodons 211–12, 293, 316
Apter, Michael 85, 298, 300
Arabidopsis, heritable gene silencing 259
Archaea, discovery of 238–9
Arkwright, Joseph 36–7
arsenic-based life 276
Asilomar Conference, 1975 280–1, 285
Astbury, William
at the Cambridge SEB meeting 53–4
early DNA X-ray work 54, 91–4
early structure for DNA 102–4
atomic bomb (Manhattan Project)
genetic code project compared to 217
George Gamow and 113
Leo Szilárd and 151
Maurice Wilkins and 18, 89
Norbert Wiener and 29
NRDC and 20
Oak Ridge Laboratory and 142
USSR and 29, 86
von Neumann and 28–9
AUG codon 213, 225, 316
Augenstine, Leroy 144–5
automation
in science 310
self-reproducing automata 32, 80, 119, 146
Wiener on the potential of 74–7, 310
Avery, Oswald T.
awards 38, 50
Francis Crick on 132, 136, 216
health 38
on nucleic acids as the transforming principle 43–53
reactions to his ideas 55–9, 62–4, 68–70
transformation in pneumococci 34–41
Avery, Roy (brother of Oswald) 44–5, 59, 63
B
Bacillus thuringiensis 270
bacteria
based on ‘synthetic’ DNA 267
capsule formation and virulence 36–7
DNA sequences online 235
enzymatic adaptation 152
generality of transformation in 59
negative feedback in biosynthesis by 153–5
sexual reproduction 51
transformation in E. coli 51–2, 56, 61, 63
transformation in pneumococci 36–9, 63
bacteriophages see phages
Bakewell, Robert 1–2
Baltimore, David 251–2
Bar-Hillel, Yehoshuua 144
Barnett, Leslie 193
base pairing
complementary base pairing 106, 109
frequency in different genomes 295
κ and Π base pairs 278
spontaneous 102
unnatural base pairs 277–8, 285
Z and P base pairs 278
base sequence
as the genetic code 111
relation to amino acid sequence 117, 124–6, 133
variability 54, 62, 70
bases, DNA
hydrogen bonding between 58, 92, 101, 106
ratio of pyrimidines to purines 42, 91, 102, 106, 109
sequence variation and specificity 57–8
bases, nucleic acid
defined 316
investigations of DNA and RNA 198
orientation 42
proportions within and between species 62, 90
tetranucleotide hypothesis 7, 42, 51, 54, 62, 90
see also purines; pyrimidines
Bateson, Gregory 22
Baulcombe, David 259
Beadle, George
at Chemical Basis of Heredity symposium 132
comments on Benzer’s work 162
Nobel Prize 215
one-gene-one-enzyme hypothesis 9–11, 204, 243–4
at the Washington Physics conference 33
behaviour, genetic effects 304–5
Beighton, Elwyn 102
Beljanski, Mirko 189–90
Bell, Florence 91, 93, 104
Benner, Steven 277–8
Benzer, Seymour 161–3, 165, 187n, 203, 215, 302
Berg, Paul 279, 281, 285
Bergmann, Max 46
β-galactosidase 152–3, 156, 158, 160, 165
‘Big Science’ 311–12
Bigelow, Julian 22–4, 27
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 180
bioinformatics 238
The Biological Replication of Macromolecules symposium 130
‘Biological units endowed with genetic continuity’ meeting 53, 59–60
biosecurity 280–1, 285
biotechnology
DNA fingerprinting as 231
fermentation as 268
genetically modified organisms 269–71, 284
regulation of 284–5
synthetic biology 277
Birney, Ewan 242, 247, 271
bits (binary digits) 27, 78
Blair, Tony 233
‘blender experiments’ 68
Boivin, André
on DNA leading to RNA 71, 140, 214
Mirsky and 56–7, 59
transformation in E. coli 51–2, 56
on varying DNA quantities 60–1
Botstein, David 231
Boveri, Theodor 3
Brachet, Jean 58, 71–2, 116
Bragg, Sir Laurence 94–5, 100, 105, 108
BRCA1 gene 234
Brenner, Sydney
adaptor hypothesis 121, 135, 209
on cell-free systems 182
on the coding problem 172
coinage of ‘codon’ 203
collaboration with Crick 121, 125, 165–6, 189, 192–3
developmental biology interest 216
disproves overlapping code idea 123–4, 200
messenger RNA idea 165–7, 172, 178, 182, 190
Nobel Prize 215
nonsense codons 213
on using polynucleotides 189
work with viruses 174, 192, 200, 213
Bridges, Calvin 4
Brillouin, Léon 76, 202
Britten, Roy 243
Brookhaven Laboratory 174
BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) 253–4
Burnet, Macfarlane
Enzyme, Antigen and Virus: A Study of Macromolecular Pattern in Action 134–5, 139, 141, 146–7
on information flows 139–41, 146–7
meeting with Avery 34–5
on non-coding DNA 141, 222
Bush, Vannevar 20–1, 26
C
‘C-value paradox’ 246
caddis-fly 175
Caenorhabditis elegans 231–2, 258, 277
Cairns, John 218
Caldwell, P. C. 71–2, 114, 214
Caltech (California Institute of Technology) 10, 80, 94, 167
Cambridge
SEB nucleic acids symposium, 1946 53–5, 58
SEB nucleic acids symposium, 1947 92
see also Bragg; Crick; Watson
cancer
E. coli experiments and 279
epigenetic marks 257
genomic variation and treatment 236–7
regulator genes and 169, 171
reverse transcriptases and 250, 252
capsule formation in bacteria 36–7
carotenoids 271
Cas9 endonuclease 282–3
Caspersson, Torbjörn 8, 58, 71–2, 116
Cech, Thomas 288
Celera Genomics 231–3
Cell (journal)
discovery of ‘split genes’ 221
Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance… 259
cell-free protein synthesis
Crick’s critique of 206
early preponderance of uridine 199, 201–2
Matthaei and Nirenberg’s work on 173, 178–80, 183–4
in Ochoa’s laboratory 176–7, 191, 209
oligonucleotide solution 208
problems with poly(A) 189–91
varied polynucleotides in 198, 203, 208
central dogma of genetics
apparent exceptions 262–3, 266
Crick’s clarification of 251–3
Crick’s original formulation of 132–3, 135–7
epigenetics and 259–60
natural selection and 262
prion proteins and 254
reverse transcriptases and 250–1
centrifugation
blender experiments 68
ultracentrifuges 39, 41, 163, 167
Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior symposium, 1948 80
CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) 272
cetacean genome 245
chain termination DNA sequencing 228
Chance and Necessity by Jacques Monod 306
chaperones, molecular 263, 265, 294
Chargaff, Erwin
DNA samples from 99, 102
meeting with Watson and Crick 101–2
opponent of sequence hypothesis 133–4
on proportions of DNA bases 57, 59, 62, 90–1, 106
supporter of Avery 51, 57, 62
uncertainty about DNA role 132–4
‘Chargaff rules’ 109
Charpentier, Emmanuelle 283–4
Chase, Martha 67
Chemical Basis of Heredity symposium, 1956 131, 161–3
chloroplasts 224
Chow, Louise 221
chromosomes
base pair frequencies 296
call for multidisciplinary research on 9
crossing over 4
defined 316
discovery 3
information content 148
mapping gene locations 4–5
nucleic acids in 42–3, 60–1
perfect replication of 6, 11
role in cell division and heredity 3–4
Schrödinger’s idea of 14
seen as coded tapes 81
ciliates 225, 227
circular causality see feedback systems
cistrons, mutons and recons 162
Cleland, Carol 276
Clinton, Bill (US President) 233
co-evolution hypothesis 293–4
codes
chromosome tape (Dancoff and Quastler) 81
Crick on DNA as 110
diamond code (Gamow) 114–16, 118, 120, 122
encoded telephone link 26
Shannon’s view of 78
specialised meaning in biology 300–2
Stern’s ‘gene code’ 70–1
see also genetic code
code-script idea (Schrödinger) 13–19, 80
coding problem
bacterial protein synthesis and 153–4
Brenner’s predictions 172
commaless code restrictions 178–9, 189, 206–7
of complementary DNA strands 200
Crick’s 1959 summary 174
Crick’s 1961 summary 193–4
Crick’s 1962 summary 205–6
Crick’s 1966 summary 214
polynucleotide approach 174–6, 196–7
retrospective of work on 216–18
and the RNA Tie Club 118
and ‘the magic twenty’ 117, 179
theoretical work on 124, 143, 200–1
codons
anticodons and 211–12, 293, 316
coinage of the term 203
confirmed as triplets 209
early preponderance of uridine in RNA 199, 201–2, 204
frequency of alternative codons 294–5
nature of link to amino acids 292–4
nonsense codons 213
stop codons 213
codon bias 294–5
codon capture model 226
cognitive ability 305
Cohen, Seymour 55
Cohn, Melvin 153n, 159
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Al Hershey at 67, 69
Barbara McClintock at 245
Monod’s visit 151–2, 220
phage course 151, 183
Richard Roberts at 223
Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology
1941: Genes and Chromosomes: Structure and Organization 42
1946: Heredity and Variation in Microorganisms 55
1947: Nucleic Acids and Nucleoproteins 53, 55–6
1948: Biological Applications of Tracer Elements 53
1951: Genes and Mutations 62
1953: Viruses 117
1961: Cellular Regulatory Mechanisms 168, 171–2, 175, 182–3, 187, 190
1963: Synthesis and Structure of Macromolecules 207–8
1966: The Genetic Code 214
1977: Chromatin 221, 223
importance 217
colinearity
absence in eukaryotes 221
DNA sequence and protein structure 213, 220
see also introns
Collins, Francis 232–3
commaless codes 178–9, 189, 206–7
communication
as characterised by variable information 25
in control systems 30
uncertainty in messages 26
complementary base pairing 106, 109, 112, 290
complementary DNA (cDNA) 232, 252
complementary replication 101–2
computers
Gamow’s access to 120
model for genes 300, 312
model for organisms 147
in next-generation sequencing 235
stored-program 26, 30
von Neumann’s designs 29–30, 142
Connolly, Kevin 255
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br /> constitutive bacterial strains 156, 160
Copley, Shelley 276
Correns, Carl 3
Crabbe, John 304
Crick, Francis
on anticodon wobbles 211
banned from further DNA work 100, 105
character and meeting with Watson 97–8
character and meeting with Wilkins 89–90
coding problem reviews 174, 193–4, 205–6, 214
on commaless codes 178–9
comparison with Oppenheimer 217
disproving diamond code idea 120–1
impressions made on Jacob 130
impressions of Gamow 118, 121
inspiration by Schrödinger’s What is life? 18, 89
on Jacob and Monod 155
lecture on the central dogma 130–1, 135–6, 140–1, 152–3, 239, 250
letter to his son 110
letter to Nirenberg over press coverage 197
letter to Temin 264
Life Itself book 287
on mathematical approaches to the genetic code 201–2
on ‘minimum experimental facts’ 99–100
Nobel Prize 207
on the origins of the genetic code 292
overview of the genetic code work 214–15
reaction to Burnet’s book 134–5, 139
reaction to Nirenberg’s discoveries 186–7, 192–5
reaction to the discovery of prions 254
at the Royaumont colloquium 203
Scientific American article 131–2, 135, 139
on the sequence hypothesis 133, 263, 294
on the synthetic polynucleotide approach 205–6
on the three flows of protein synthesis 135–6, 306
on triplet codes 192–3, 197
X-ray diffraction expertise 95
Crick, Michael (son of FC) 110
CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) 282–5, 316
crocodiles, sex determination 300, 304
crossing over, in chromosomes 4
cryptography 26–7, 143
crystals
one-dimensional aperiodic 15–17, 80, 113
unit cell of DNA 100, 104–5
crystal growth
prion action resembling 254
replication model 7, 15
crystallography 316
see also X-rays
‘cybernetics’
Bar-Hillel on 144
coinage of the term 74
de Broglie on 82
defined 316
link with genetics 80–1, 119, 149–50, 159, 306–7
Monod on 306–7
national differences in approach 81–3
resurgence of interest in 307
satirised 87–8, 88f
Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, by Norbert Wiener 73–8
cytosine
deamination 290
methylation 256–8
see also pyrimidines
D
D-2 section, NRDC 21, 27, 77
Dancoff, Sydney 81, 85
dangers
regulation and 284–5
synthetic biology and genetic engineering 279–80, 284
