February of 1944 saw the publication of a classic paper by Avery, MacLeod and McCarty, showing that DNA was the “transforming element” responsible for the transmission of inherited characteristics in bacteria. Nine years later, in February 1953 Francis Crick and James Watson made their famous discovery of “the secret of life”, and later that year published a paper describing the double helical structure of DNA. Their work, along with that of Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins and others established the structure of the DNA molecule and proposed a mechanism whereby the molecule
was able to copy itself and thus carry hereditary information to progeny cells (This Nature website provides links to the key papers of that era). Today, more than sixty years after the discovery of DNA, the human genome project has been completed and the next great task, that of understanding the way genes and proteins interact to create a diversity of cell types and to generate changes in the proteome in response to various signals, is well under way. The years between the identification of DNA as the transforming element and the publication of the sequence of the
4
Table of Contents
of Molecular Tools
human genome saw the development of the entire field of molecular biology and the associated emergence of the fundamental techniques that made the human genome project a viable proposition. Key events in that history of molecular biology include the discovery and mass production of restriction and DNA modifying enzymes, the invention of PCR and qPCR, the development of DNA purification methods, and the invention of automated sequencing. The evolution of various molecular tools and the development of the computing power to assist in data analysis have had a major impact on
the pace of discovery over the years. Many of those key techniques are now a routine part of daily laboratory life. On their own they were significant discoveries, taken together they have transformed life science research.
Learn more about basic molecular biology techniques:
PCR Cloning Transfection DNA Purification PCR Protocols Online The Chemistry of Inheritance Cycle Sequencing Animation Restriction Enzyme Resource
5
Evolution
Voor vaktijdschriften, online rapporten en catalogi zie het Online Touch content management system systeem. Met de mogelijkheid voor een web winkel in uw nieuwsbrieven.
Promega US eNews - February 2010 Lees publicatie 12Home