The Relation of Informational RNA to DNA

  1. S. Spiegelman
  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.

Excerpt

I. INTRODUCTION: NATURE OF THE PROBLEM

The essence of the dogma, so acceptable to our time, can be briefly summarized by the following familiar diagram:

DNA → RNA → Protein.

Here, the arrows are meant to indicate flow of information. The presumption is that the genetic information coded in the base sequence of DNA is ultimately transcribed into the amino acid sequence of protein via a polyribonucleotide intermediary. It is the primary purpose of the present paper to focus attention on the first step in this chain of events.

The simplest imaginable transcription mechanism one can propose would suggest the synthesis of complementary RNA copies of the DNA. The RNA so formed would mimic the base ratio of its parental DNA providing one of the two following conditions was satisfied.

  1. Both strands of the DNA are employed as templates for complementary RNA synthesis, or

  2. The over-all base composition

| Table of Contents