Abstract
THE recent exchange of views in Nature regarding the biosynthesis of proteins prompts some comments from a geneticist. Campbell and Work1 take note of “the two main streams of thought on protein synthesis: one derived from the study of isolated enzyme systems and suggesting a stepwise coupling of many small peptide units; the other based on the study of genetic inheritance of protein specificity and preferring synthesis on templates, each template being specific for a single protein structure and probably identifiable with a gene”. While not rejecting the latter view (one gene – one protein), they point to some of the difficulties with which it is confronted, and further suggest the possibility, that a synthesis of the two ideas will be found to fit the facts. Dounce2, on the other hand, elaborates and defends a nucleic acid template hypothesis, and suggests that such a hypothesis is consistent with the existence of both plasma genes and nuclear genes. Quite independently, immunogenetic and biochemical studies of controllable genetic material have yielded results suggesting a synthesis of these views.
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References
Campbell, P. N., and Work, T. S., Nature, 171, 997 (1953). Work, T. S., and Campbell, P. N., Nature, 172, 541 (1953).
Dounce, A. L., Enzymologia, 15, 251 (1952); Nature, 172, 541 (1953).
Fox, A. S., Genetics, 34, 647 (1949). Fox, A. S., and White, T. B., Genetics, 38, 152 (1953).
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Green, M. M., and Green, K. C., Proc. U.S. Nat. Acad. Sci., 35, 586 (1949).
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FOX, A. Protein Synthesis and Genetics. Nature 173, 350–351 (1954). https://doi.org/10.1038/173350b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/173350b0
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