Life's Greatest Secret
Page 49
as metaphor 112, 147–9, 159, 203, 298, 300
in molecules other than DNA 275
nongenetic transmission 255
philosophers on the nature of 144, 149, 202–3, 297–303
role in biology 30, 73, 82–7, 119, 299–300
role in biology questioned 142, 144, 149
Shannon’s definition of 78, 82, 144, 147
information flow
central dogma concern 262–3, 265, 306
in enzyme induction 307
protein → DNA disallowed 136, 138, 251–2, 265–6
protein → protein 253
in protein synthesis 168–9, 251
‘Information in Contemporary Science’ colloquium 202, 205
information storage potential of DNA 271–2
information theory
influence on molecular genetics 307
Oak Ridge symposium 142–6, 148–9
Royal Society conference 81
Royaumont colloquium 202–3, 205
Information Theory in Biology symposium 84
Information Theory in Health Physics and Radiobiology Symposium 142–9
Informational Macromolecules symposium, 1962 204–5
Ingram, Vernon 125–8, 132, 165
inheritance
of acquired characteristics 138, 260
fundamental question of 1
insects as crustacea 239
intelligence, genetic effects 305
5th International Congress of Biochemistry, Moscow, 1961 183, 185–8, 190–2
International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium 232–3
intraspecific variation 236
introns
and code universality 226
coinage of the term 222
evolution 222–3
human genome project 232, 238
preventing back translation 301
iso-G and iso-C 278
isochores 296
isotopic labelling 67, 163–4
J
Jackson, David 279
Jacob, François
ideas on genetic regulation 168–71, 256–7
meeting with Crick and Brenner 165–6
meeting with Monod 155
meeting with Szilárd 152
on messenger RNA 178
on natural selection 215
on ‘night science’ 171, 218
and Nirenberg 175, 185–6, 189
Nobel Prize 215
operon model 169–71, 243, 306
PaJaMo studies 155–6, 158, 160, 166, 178
report of Crick’s protein synthesis lecture 130
repressor action on DNA 158–9, 257
at the Royaumont colloquium 203
see also Monod
Jeffreys, Alec 230
Joad, Professor Cyril 83
Johannsen, Wilhelm 3
Johns Hopkins University symposium, ‘The Chemical Basis of Heredity,’ 1956 161–3
Jones, Bill 192
Journal of Molecular Biology 160, 167, 185
Joyce, Gerald 275
Joyce, James 268
Jukes, Thomas 201, 226
‘junk DNA’ 247–9, 299
K
Kalmus, Hans 86–7
κ and Π base pairs 278
Kawaoka, Yoshihiro 280
Kay, Lily 88, 180, 181f, 185n
keratin 84, 94–5, 105
Khorana, Gorind 208–9, 212, 214
Kilburn, Tom 74
Kimura, Mitoo 148
King, Martin Luther 272
King’s College, London 89–90, 92–5, 98–9, 101–8, 165
Kolmogoroff, Andrei 77
Koltsov, Nikolai 6–7, 12, 15, 17
L
lactose, and enzyme induction 152–3, 156, 243
Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste 72, 138, 260–1
Landy, Art 187–8
Lane, Nick 287
Large Hadron Collider 272
Lazarsfeld, Paul 29
Leder, Phil 209
Lederberg, Joshua
correspondence with von Neumann 146
enthusiasm for nucleic acids 58–9, 63
Nobel Prize 51, 215
Quastler’s symposium and 84
rejects Nirenberg 175
views on terminology 87, 161, 244
Lengyel, Peter 190–1, 203
Leopold, Urs 87
leucine, alternative codons 294–5
Levene, Phoebus, tetranucleotide hypothesis 7, 42–3, 51, 54, 62, 90
life, alien forms 275
life, origins of 286–9
Life Itself by Francis Crick 287
Linschitz, Henry 85
Lipmann, Fritz 189
Lockyer, Becky 255
Lu, Timothy 272
LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) 227, 290, 293
Luria, Salvador 8, 34, 65–6, 97, 215
Luzzati, Vittorio 116
Lwoff, André 59–60, 155, 202, 215
Lysenko, Trofim Denisovich 260–1
lysine, genetic code for 190
lysozyme 125
M
M-9 predictor 24
Maas, Werner 157
MacLeod, Colin 38–41
Macy conference 29
‘ the magic twenty’ 117, 179
The Major Transitions in Evolution (book) 299
mammals
base pair frequencies 295
discovery of ‘split genes’ in 221
genomic imprinting 248
origin of the placenta 245
Manchester 9, 26, 74, 162, 289
Mandelbrot, Benoit 203
Manhattan Project see atomic bomb
Manton, Irene 17
Margulis, Lynn 224
Mars, terraforming 279
Martians 268–9
Martin, Bill 287
Martin, Bob 192
‘maternal effects’ 258
mathematics
approaches to the genetic code 115–16, 143, 174–5, 201, 214–15, 301–2
of next-generation sequencing 235
Patterson function 92, 103, 106
readers’ tolerance of equations 73–4
of Schrödinger’s code-script 14
Mathematical problems in the biological sciences symposium 175
Matthaei, Heinrich
Cold Spring Harbor 1966 Symposium 214
collaboration with Nirenberg 173–5, 177–87
competitors 189–91
Crick’s reaction to 193–6
genetic code success 174, 181–2
not awarded the Nobel Prize 215
Maxwell’s Demon (James Clerk Maxwell) 27, 30, 76
May, Lord (Robert May) 281
Maynard Smith, John 299–300
Mazia, Daniel 61–2
McCarty, Maclyn 41, 43, 46–7, 49, 55, 62, 66, 189n
McClintock, Barbara 245
McCulloch, Warren 24, 82, 86, 149
Mead, Margaret 22, 24
meaning and information flow 78–9, 144
meiosis 12
Mello, Craig 283
Mendel, Gregor 2–3, 128
Meselson, Matthew 163–5, 167, 186–8
messages see communication; information theory
messenger molecule, PaJaMo group 156, 165
messenger RNA (mRNA)
cross-species transfer 271
discovery 166–7, 169
function 317
Nirenberg’s work with 178, 180, 184–5, 208
PaJaMo group and 166, 178
potential manipulation 284
pre-mRNA processing to 222
switch of code investigations to 198
untranslated regions 297
use of possible codons 208, 211
metaphors
information as 112, 147–9, 159, 203, 298, 300
risks associated with 313
methionine/start codon 213
methylation of cytosine 256–8
microsomal particles (ribosomes) 134
Mies
cher, Fritz 14–15
Miller, Stanley 286
Mirsky, Alfred E. 41–3, 55–9, 62, 64, 90–1
MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Broad Institute CRISPR patents 284
David Baltimore at 251
Elias at 147
Farzadfard and Lu at 272
Phillip Sharp at 223
Shannon at 25, 27
Wiener’s group at 21, 24–5
mitochondria
maternal effects 258
and the origin of eukaryotes 239
mitochondrial DNA 224–5
mitosis 12
‘Models in Biology’ symposium 147
models of DNA
Astbury on 54
early attempts 99–100, 103
triple helix models 99–100, 104, 106
Watson and Crick’s final model 106–7, 107f
molecular biology
coinage of the term 21
Ed Tatum on development of 204
funding and coordination 217, 312
Journal of Molecular Biology 160, 167, 185
Molecular Biology of the Gene, by James Watson 140, 251
molecular geneticists 130, 267
molecular genetics
Benzer’s role in creating 162
changes in the practice of 310
colinearity assumption 213
contribution of Jacob and Monod 170
Darwinian framework 220
influence of cybernetics and information theory 148, 298–9, 307–8
reverse transcriptase role 252
universality assumption 250
validity of the word ‘code’ 301
see also central dogma
Monod, Jacques
Chance and Necessity book 306
on cybernetics 407
‘derepression of repression’ 257
on dogma 137
enzymatic adaptation/induction 152–3
Essays in Enzyme Cybernetics project 159
ideas on genetic regulation 168–71, 220, 226, 243
on negative feedback 153–4
PaJaMo studies 155–6, 158, 160, 166, 178
see also Jacob
Morgan, Thomas Hunt 3–6, 9
Moscow, 5th International Congress of Biochemistry, 1961 183, 185–8, 190–2
mRNA see messenger RNA
Mueller, Howard 51
Muller, Hermann
on Avery’s work 50–1, 56
crystal-growth model 7, 15
inducing mutations with X-rays 5
Nobel Prize 33
reaction to What is life? 18
relationship with Morgan 4–5
viruses as models for genes 8
Mullis, Kary 229–30
multicellular organisms
horizontal gene transfer in 271
information storage 299
mutations
bacterial enzyme induction and 155–6
directed/targetted mutations 39, 45, 56, 283
frequency and inheritance of 13
inducing with X-rays 5–6, 10
point mutations and frame-shifts 223
Schrödinger’s views on 12–13, 18–19
single-gene, effects 127–8
T4 phage work on triple coding 192–3
Mycoplasma mycoides 267–8
Myriad Genetics 234
N
Nagasaki 18, 28–9, 89, 151
Naples, Symposium on Submicroscopical Morphology in Protoplasm 96–7
Napp, Abbot of Brno 1–2
Nasuia deltocephalinicola 237
national differences over genetics as information 81–3
National Institutes of Health group 173, 175, 183, 192, 209
natural selection
and the central dogma 262
effect on genetic information 299–300
non-functional DNA as exempt 262
Nature
book reviews 17, 50
Brenner, Jacob and Crick paper 178+
Brenner, Jacob and Meselson paper 167
Crick et al. on the triplet code 193, 197
Gamow letter 114
Gilbert on automation and computers 310
Gilbert on introns 221–2
human genome project 233
Ingram letter 127–8
letter from Ephrussi et al. 87–8
papers by Wilkins et al. 94
on the reversal of the central dogma 250–1
Watson and Crick letters 109, 111–13
Nature Genetics paper with 440
authors 311
Neanderthals 240–2
Neel, James 126
‘negative entropy’ (negentropy) 12, 18, 75–6, 78, 202
negative feedback in biology
in behaviour 23–5
Cold Spring Harbor symposium on 168
in protein synthesis 151–4, 153–5, 157, 168
pyrimidine biosynthesis 154
repression distinguished from 168
systems biology legacy 306
Wiener on 30, 75–6, 79
see also cybernetics
negative feedback in history 76
neo-Darwinian synthesis 138
Neufeld, Fred 37
neural networks 307
neuronal development 223, 239
Neurospora 10
‘night science’ 171, 218
Nirenberg, Marshall
at Cold Spring Harbor 1963 Symposium 207–8
at Cold Spring Harbor 1966 Symposium 214
collaboration with Matthaei 173–5, 177–80
to Crick on press coverage 197
on Crick’s demonstration of a triplet code 194
Crick’s evaluation of 186–7, 192–5
Lily Kay on 185n
Moscow Congress presentations 186–7
Nobel Prize and evaluation of 215–17, 309, 312
rivalry with Ochoa’s group 191–2, 196–7
at the Royaumont colloquium 203
at the Rutgers symposium 204–5
various rejections 175, 183
work with synthetic RNA fragments 209–12
Nobel Prizes
awards for genetic code work 215; limit on numbers sharing 167n; potential recipients 284; potential recipients overlooked 59, 108, 167n, 215
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Sidney Altman 288; Christian Anfinsen 264; Paul Berg 279; Thomas Cech 288; Wally Gilbert 228, 279; Kary Mullis 229n, 230; Max Perutz 17; Fred Sanger (twice) 120, 228, 279
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (and later Peace)
Linus Pauling 17
Nobel Prize in Physics
Louis de Broglie 82; Dick Feynman 117
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
David Baltimore 252; George Beadle 215; Sydney Brenner 215; Macfarlane Burnet 34, 140; Francis Crick 18, 108, 207, 215; Max Delbrück 215; Renato Delbucco 252; Andrew Fire 283; Al Hershey 215; Robert Holley 215; François Jacob 215; Gorind Khorana 215; Joshua Lederberg 51, 215; Fritz Lipmann 189; Salvador Luria 215; André Lwoff 215; Barbara McClintock 245–6; Craig Mello 283; Jacques Monod 157, 215; Thomas Hunt Morgan 5; Hermann Muller 33; Marshall Nirenberg 215; Severo Ochoa 176, 215; Stanley Prusiner 254; Richard Roberts 223; Phillip Sharp 223; Wendell Stanley 64; Ed Tatum 215; Howard Temin 252; Harold Varmus 188; James Watson 18, 108, 207, 215; Maurice Wilkins 18, 108, 207, 215
non-coding DNA 141, 222, 232
non-repetitive code-scripts 15
non-ribosomal peptides 264
nongenetic transmission of information 255
Northrop, John 46, 66
Novick, Aaron 153–4, 168
NRDC (National Research Defense Committee) 20–1, 27
nucleic acids
genes as 47, 52, 91
identification of the transforming principle as 38, 40
possible information transfers with proteins 136
publishing and conferences on 53
supposed uniformity 42
virus use of DNA or
RNA 289
see also DNA; RNA
nucleic acids, synthetic see oligonucleotides; polynucleotides; XNA
nucleic acid bases see bases
nuclein (now DNA) 7, 15
nucleoproteins
defined 317
as imagined material of genes 42–3, 60, 94, 97, 200n
nucleotides
defined 317
sequence variation and specificity 57–8
see also bases
Nyquist, Harry 27
O
Oak Ridge National Laboratory 62, 122, 142, 144, 148–9
Ochoa, Severo
discovery of polynucleotide phosphorylase 176
Informational Macromolecules symposium, 1962 204–5
on mRNA reading direction 212
Nobel Prize 215
openness to a doublet code 201, 205
polynucleotide investigations 190–2, 196–9
rivalry with Nirenberg and Matthaei 189–92, 209
at Royaumont 203–5
at the Rutgers symposium 204–5
Ohno, Susumu 247
olfactory receptor genes 245
oligonucleotides 208–9
On the Human Use of Human Beings, by Norbert Wiener 83, 268
On the nature of gene mutation and gene structure (‘Three-Man Paper’) 6, 13, 17–19
‘one gene, one enzyme hypothesis’ 10–11, 160, 204, 244
‘onion test’ 246–7
operons 169–71, 243, 306, 317
organic sensors 273
Orgel, Leslie 178, 287, 292
origins of life 286–9
Osawa, Syozo 226
Oxford Nanopore Technologies 236
P
Pääbo, Svante 240–1
PaJaMo (Pardee, Jacob and Monod) studies 155–6, 158, 160, 166, 178
palaeogenomics 240–1
pandas, giant 235
panspermia, directed 287
Paramecium 225
Pardee, Arthur 154–6, 168
see also PaJaMo studies
Paris, ‘Biological units endowed with genetic continuity’ meeting 53, 59–61
‘parity thesis’ 303
patenting issues 232, 234, 284
Patterson function 92, 103, 106
Pauling, Linus
at Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior symposium 80
molecular structure of DNA 104–5, 108
molecular structure of proteins 84–5, 94–5, 97, 100, 105
reaction to Ronwin’s structure 103
reaction to What is life? 17
on sickle-cell anaemia 126
PCR (polymerase chain reaction) 229–30, 276, 317
PCSK9 gene 237
pea aphids 270–1
peas, Mendel’s experiments 2–3
peptides
assembled without DNA involvement 264
as possible early replicating systems 288
personalised medicine 236–7
Perutz, Max
haemoglobin studies 126
hands Watson and Crick MRC report containing Franklin’s data 105, 122
human genome project and 233
joined by Watson 97