BI110 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Sydney Brenner, Ribosomal Rna, Polymerization
Document Summary
3d structure gives clues on how dna stores and transmits information. We didn"t know how genetic information in dna is read out to control cellular processes. Evidence grew that dna carries the genetic information for proteins and that they are synthesized on particles called ribosomes. 1961 sydney brenner etc. used virus t2 which infects cells of ecoli and steals the cellular machinery to make viral proteins. They found that t2 dna doesn"t associate with bacterial ribosomes, the infected cells produce a burst of rna molecules after infection and before viral proteins are made. Transfer of genetic info from dna to rna is a key step of transcription. Rna can store information it its sequence of nucleotides. They can act as enzymes that facilitate chemical reactions. Rna world hypothesis:rna has properties of both dna and proteins, scientists think. Strand of rna was synthesized and replicated to produce a large population of identical rna molecules.
