Polynucleotide Synthesis and the Genetic Code
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Excerpt
The approach that forms the basis of the greater portion of our work on the genetic code involves the preparation of long ribopolynucleotide messengers containing known repeating nucleotide sequences. The first step in the preparation of these defined messengers consists in the preparation of short deoxyribopolynucleotides of known sequences by entirely chemical methods, and the second step involves the use of the synthetic polynucleotides as templates for RNA polymerase or DNA polymerase. Intensive studies with both these enzymes have shown that the route involving use of DNA polymerase for “amplification” of the synthetic short deoxyribopolynucleotides is much the more satisfactory and, consequently, the preparation of high molecular weight DNA-like polymers with repeating nucleotide sequences has been a principal concern of our recent work. In the following, the work on the chemical synthesis of deoxyribopolynucleotides and that on the use of these as templates for DNA polymerase is reviewed first, and...
