Skip to main content
Deciphering the Genetic Code
Society
Main Category
Sub Category
Era
Date Created
Location Country
us
Coordinates
39.000443, -77.102394
Address1
NIH Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Ctr
Address2
31 Center Dr # 2A03
City
Bethesda
State
Country
Zip

In 1961, in the National Institutes of Health Headquarters (Bethesda, MD), Marshall Nirenberg and Heinrich Matthaei discovered the key to breaking the genetic code when they conducted an experiment using a synthetic RNA chain of multiple units of uracil to instruct a chain of amino acids to add phenylalanine. The uracil (poly-U) served as a messenger directing protein synthesis. This experiment demonstrated that messenger RNA transcribes genetic information from DNA, regulating the assembly of amino acids into complex proteins. Nirenberg would go on to decipher the code by demonstrating the correspondence of various trinucleotides to individual amino acids. He was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in 1968.

Image Credit
Courtesy Wikipedia/Infocan (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Image Caption
Deciphering the Genetic Code

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.