What Mad Pursuit (24 page)

T
HE GENETIC CODE is the little dictionary that relates the four-letter language of the nucleic acids (A, G, T, and C for DNA; RNA has U in place of T) to the twenty-letter language of proteins. A group of three adjacent letters, called a codon, codes for an amino acid. (There are 4 × 4 × 4 = 64 codons in all.) Most amino acids are coded by more than one codon. In addition, three codons stand for “end of chain.”

The genetic code is usually displayed as shown in
table B-1
. At first sight the table may appear rather confusing, but basically it is very simple. The exact chemical formula of each amino acid is known. For example, one of the amino acids is called valine. To make the table easier to read, valine is abbreviated to Val. In a similar way histidine, the name of one of the other amino acids, is written His. The three bases of each triplet can be read off for each entry in the table. The first base is written on the left, the second at the top, and the third on the right. Thus it can be seen that valine (Val) is coded by GUU, GUC, GUA, and GUG, whereas histidine (His) has the codons CAU and CAC. The three codons for ending the polypeptide chain (STOP) are UAA, UAG, and UGA. The left end of an RNA or DNA chain, as usually written, is called the 5’ end and the right end the 3’ end, for chemical reasons.

TABLE B-1

The code appears to be exactly the same for all higher plants and animals studied so far. Nevertheless, minor variations are known, especially for the DNA of certain mitochondria, the little organelles that live in the cytoplasm of higher organisms and for certain of the fungi.

Abbreviations

Acridines

Adaptor hypothesis

Adenine

Admiralty

Adrian, Lord

Alanine

Albright, Thomas

Algorithms

Ames room

Amino acids; adaptors and; alteration of single; DNA and RNA templates for side-chains of; head-tail joining of in polypeptide chain; mutants and; one-dimensional sequences of; polypeptide chains and; in proteins; sequences of; side-chains; total number of; tRNA and;
see also specific omino acids

Amylase

Andersen, Richard

Andrade, Edward Neville da Costa

Antibiotics, advances in

Antibodies, monoclonal

Arginine

Arrhenius, Svante

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Asimov, Isaac

Asparagine

Astbury, William; α helix and

Astrachan, Lazarus

Astronomy

Asymmetric unit

Atomic energy

Atoms: Bohr theory; carbon; distance between; energies between; exact configuration of in space; heavy; hydrogen; light; mercury; nitrogen; smashing of by Cockcroft and Walton

Attention, neural basis of

Autocorrelation function, of electron den­sity

Avery, Oswald

Bachmann, Larry

Backmutation

Back-propogation algorithm

Bacteria; blender experiment and; diaminopimelic acid found in cell walls of; difference between genotype and phenotype and; gene control and; genetics and; introns and; lysis of; rough coat; smooth coat;
see also
Bacteriophages; Phages

Bacterial Cell, The
(Hinshelwood)

Bacteriophages;
see also
Bacteria; Phages

Baltimore, David

Barlow, Horace

Barnett, Leslie

Base pairs: DNA; mutation rate in effective; pairing rules for; replication errors and; RNA;
see also
Nucleotides

Bauer, William

Beadle, George

Behavioral genetics

Behaviorism

Benzer, Seymour; behavioral genetics of
Drosophila
and; Biochemical Congress at Moscow (1961) and; one-dimensionality of gene and

Bernal, J. D.

Bessel functions

ß-galactosidase

Big Bang theory

Biochemical Congress, Moscow (1961)

Biochemistry

Biological replication, natural selection and

Biology: development of theory in; difference of from physics; entry of physicists into; hydrogen bond and; laws of; mechanisms of

Biophysics

Birkbeck College, London

Black box: brain as; classical genetics as

Blender experiment

Blending inheritance

Blind Watchmaker, The
(Dawkins)

Blue-green algae;
see also
Bacteria

Bohr, Niels

Bondi, Hermann

Bonds: atomic; distances of; double; electrostatic interactions of; homopolar; hydrogen; multiple; peptide; single; and van der Waal's forces

Botany

Boyton, Robert

Brachet, Jean

Bragg, Sir Lawrence; α helix and

Bragg, Sir William

Bragg's law for X-ray diffraction

Brain: ablation of; as black box; cerebral cortex; hippocampus; mammalian; memory and; models of; neocortex; as product of natural selection; receptors; reflectivity and; sciences; transmitters; visual system; waves; workings of

Brenner, Sydney; embryology and; genetic code work by; mRNA work by; neurobiological interests of; paper on triplet code; phage genetics work by

Bressler

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Bromotyrosine

Bronowski, Bruno

Brooklyn Polytechnic

Buchner, Edward

Caenorhabditus elegans

Caius College

California

California Institute of Technology

Callander, Jane

Cambridge University;
see also specific colleges

Carbon

Carboxyl (CO) groups

Carnegie-Mellon University

Cartilage

Catholic Church

Cavendish, Henry

Cavendish Laboratory

Central dogma

Cerebral cortex

Chadwick, James

Chain terminators

Chargaff, Erwin

Chargaff's rules

Chemical and Engineering News

Chemistry; of DNA; inorganic; lack of knowledge of on part of many physicists; of macromofecules; Nobel Prize for; organic; of polypeptide synthesis; protein; quantum mechanics application to

Chick: fibroblasts, phagocytosis of magnetic ore by; lysozyme

Chromatography; protein fingerprint­ing and; tRNA and

Chromosomes: approximate size of; DNA in; occurrence of cell genes on; selfish DNA in

Churchland, Pat

Churchland, Paul

Church of England

Circular DNA

Cis-trans test

Cistrons

Cochran, William

Codons

Cognitive science

Cohn, Mel

Coil of Life, The
(Moore)

Cold Spring Harbor: annual meeting (1966); Symposium (1953)

Co-linearity

Colinvaux, Raoul

Collagen

Collingwood, Edward

Color vision

Combination code

Comma-free code

Commoner, Barry

Complexity: biological; species

Condensation

Cones, number of in eye

Congregational Church

Consciousness: experimental study of; mystery of

Conservation laws

Continuous creation theory

Cosmology

Coulson, Charles

Cowan, Max

Cowan, Pauline

Cozzarelli, Nick

Creationism

Crick, Anne Elizabeth (née Wilkins)

Crick, Arthur

Crick, Doreen (née Dodd)

Crick, Francis: adaptor hypothesis and; α helix and; Biochemical Congress at Moscow (1961) and; biological training of; biophysics and; birth; botanical interests of; brain visual system and; Cambridge home of; chemistry training and; childhood and early years of; collagen work by; directed panspermia and; divorce of; DNA double helix codiscovery by; DNA structure work by; early molecular biology interests of; early pure scientific research of; early scientific interests of; early work experience of; education of; embryology and; error-correcting device in DNA replication and; experiences with books and movies about DNA; extraterrestrial intelligence interests of; family life of; feelings on discovery of double helix; first crystallographic talk of; first marriage of; first published papers of; first research seminar of; genetic code work; "gossip test" theory of, raduate school and; mpressions of
The Double Helix,
later years of;
Life Itself
; mathematics and; mRNA work by; neurobiological interests of; Nobel Prize awarded to; paper on comma-free code; papers on DNA structure; paper on genetic code; paper to Society of Experimental Biology; paper on triplet code; phage genetics work by; Ph.D. thesis of; physics training and; protein fingerprinting research by; protein structure research by; religious views of; RNA Tie Club and;
Scientific American
article by; scientific intelligence experience of; on scientific research as an activity; second marriage of; "selfish DNA" work by; on sound biological theory; sports interests of; suppressors and; Tangier meeting and; weapons research during World War II; X-ray crystallography work and

Crick, Harry

Crick, Jacqueline

Crick, Michael

Crick, Odile

Crick, Tony

Crick, Walter

Crosses, gene

Cross-feeding

Cross-overs

C2 space group

Cysteine

Cystine

Cytoplasm; physical properties of; and ribosomal protein synthesis; RNA export to; RNA in

Cytosine

Darwin, Charles: blending inheritance and; invalidation of creationism by; Linnean society and; natural selection theory of

da Vinci, Leonardo

Dawkins, Richard

de Hoffmann, Frederic

Delbrück, Max

Deletions; overlapping

Demerec, Milislav

Deoxyribonucleic acid,
see
DNA

Deoxyribose

Diaminopimelic acid

Dickerson, Richard

Dihedral angle

Dinosaurs, extinction of

Diploidy

Diversity, of species

DNA: A form; α helix; backbone of; bacterial cell;
ß
helix; B form; books and movies about; chemistry of; chromosomal; circular; coding for proteins; composition of genes, control sequences for gene induction and repression; C2 space group; double helix; ease of understanding concept of; error-correcting device in replication of; fibers; four-letter alphabet of; impurities in; left-handed structure; length of presence on Earth; linking number and; linking of unlinked circles of; mitochondrial; molecule length; molecule shape; molecule size; mutation rate per effective base pair and; nonsense sequences; nuclear; as nucleoprotein constituent; origin of; parasitic; phage; phosphate groups; recombinant; recombinant techniques in
Drosophila
genetics; radiation and; replication; selfish; sequence complementarity of; sequencing; side-by-side structure theory of; single-stranded; structural similarity to RNA; structure of; sugar groups; as template for amino acid side chains; transforming factor of pneumococcus and; two chains of; unlinking of linked circles of; viral; Z-;
see also
Base pairs; Nucleotides

Dominance: allelic; incomplete

Donohue, Jerry

Doty, Paul

Double Helix
(movie),

Double Helix, The
(Watson),

Dreams, theory of

Dreyer, William

Drosophila

Dulbecco, Renato

Dyadic symmetry

Earth, true age of

Eccles, Sir John

E. coli:
bacteriophage T4 infection of; introns and

Egg, sexual reproduction and

Egg white lysozyme

Eigen, Manfred

Eigenvalues

Eighth Day of Creation, The
(Judson)

Electron: density; density mapping; discovery of; microscope

Electrostatic interactions

Embryology

Encounter

End chains; STOP codon and

Energy: of attraction; free; of re­pulsion

Environment, role of in natural selection

Enzymes; induction of; pancreatic production of

Ephrussi, Boris

Error-correcting device

European Conference on Visual Perception, Seventh, (Cambridge)

Evolution; α helix and; difficulty in studying; hostility of creationists toward; natural selection and; process of; of stars; over time; as tinkerer

Experimental Cell Research

Extinction, of species

Eyes, photoreceptors of

Fell, Honor B.

Fermentation

Feynman, Richard

Fibroblasts, chick

Fibrous proteins

Fisher, R. A.

Fivefold symmetry; α helix and

Fleming, Alexander

Fodor, Jerry

Formylmethionine

Fossil record

Fouracre, Ronnie

Fourier Transforms

Fractionation methods

Franklin, Rosalind; and A form DNA; and B form DNA; movie characterization of; paper on DNA structure; personal background of; and Tobacco Mosaic Virus; X-ray crystallography work on DNA structure

Free energy

Freese, Ernst

Freud, Sigmund

Freudenthal, H.

Frog's eye, insect detectors in

Fundamental particles

Galactose

Gamow, George

General Chemistry
(Pauling)

Gene(s): and amino acid sequence in proteins; bacterial transformation and; chemical structure of; control of bacteria; control of protein synthesis; cross-over; crosses; cytoplasmic; dele­tions; DNA between; DNA composition of; frequency of recombination; hybrid; induc­tion; isolation; eaky mutants; magnification; mapping; molecular structure of; mutants; nature of; nonleaky mutants; nuclear; occurrence of on chromosomes; omissions; polysaccharide coats of; products; protein component of; protein synthesis control by; r
_II
; random mutation; replication; repression; RNA intermediate in protein synthesis and; size of; structure; suppressors; three-dimensional structure of; transfer of bacterial; tRNA; wild-type; as units of instruction;
see also
Genetic code; Genetics; Mutations

Genetic code; combination code; comma-free code; elucidation of; triplet code; uniformity of; universality of;
see also
Gene(s); Genetics; Mutations

Genetic disease

Genetics: bacterial; behavioral; classical; control mechanisms; crosses; general ignorance toward; Mendelian; molecular basis of; phage; recombination; of speciation; variation;
see also
Gene(s); Genetic code; Mutations

Genotype

Geophysics

Glasgow University

Globular proteins

Glutamate, NMDA receptor for

Glutamic acid

Glutamine

Glycine

Gold, Thomas

Goldblum, Jeff

"Golden Helix, The,"

Golomb, Sol

Gosling, Raymond

Gradients

Green College

Griffith, John

Group theory

Guanine

Haldane, J. B. S.

Hamlet
(Shakespeare)

Handedness, of biological molecules

Haploidy

Hardy Club

Hartridge, Hamilton

Harvard Medical School

Hauptman, Herbert

Hayes, William

Helix: α double; integer axes of; molecular simplicity of; noninteger screw of; Pauling's α; peptide bonds pla­nar in; screw axis of

Helmholtz Club

Hemoglobin; heavy atoms added to; horse; human; structure of; three-dimensional structure of; X-ray diffraction studies of

Hershey, Al

Hill, A. V.

Hinshelwood, Sir Cyril

Hippocampus

Histones

Hoagland, Mahlon

Hodgkin, Alan

Holley, Robert

Homopolar bonds

Hopkins, Gowland

Hotchkiss, Rollin