Subject(s)
Journalism/history , Journalism/trends , Periodicals as Topic/history , Periodicals as Topic/trends , Science/history , Science/trends , Animals , Anniversaries and Special Events , Authorship , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Internationality , Islets of Langerhans , Nucleic Acids/history , Nucleic Acids/isolation & purification , Politics , Societies, Scientific/history , United KingdomABSTRACT
The article presents a short history of David Shugar studies in the field of photochemistry and UV spectroscopy of proteins and nucleic acids, carried out since the late 1940s. to the beginning of the 1970s. of the 20th century, with some references to the state of related research in those days.
Subject(s)
Biochemistry/history , Nucleic Acids/history , Photochemistry/history , Proteins/history , Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet/history , Belgium , France , History, 20th Century , Nucleic Acids/chemistry , Poland , Proteins/chemistryABSTRACT
If we look at the history of our knowledge of nucleic acids, we would see in the distant past of 140 years Friedrich Miescher who had identified the acidic substance within the cell nucleus, which he called nuclein. About 70 years after his initial observation, this substance was connected with genetic information. This very substantial finding happened during the World War II. This was the impulse that research of nucleic acids received to speed up continuously growing mountain of information, which is more and more difficult to understand. Another eruption of new information about our genome was the result of ten years of intensive cooperation of many manufacturers divided into two competitive blocks which offered us knowledge of nucleotide sequence of all 46 DNA molecules. The year 2000 became the landmark marking the start of the postgenomic era. It did not mean that human genome was totally explored, but the cornerstone has been settled. Since then, we could concentrate our efforts on variability; use of the project of 1,000 genomes brought many important findings, eg. copy number variability (CNV) exceeds the single nucleotide polymophisms (SNP). Also intergenomic relationships, studies on function and pathways began to be much more understandable by elucidation of the genome primary structure. NGS as a tool also accelerated the epigenetic research. All this improved molecular diagnostics by discovering many new markers playing their role in disease and treatment and allowed us to enter the field of multifactorial illnesses including cancer. The progress in diagnostic technologies which has happened during the last decade forced our research teams to include other professions - eg. bioinformatics.
Subject(s)
Molecular Diagnostic Techniques , Nucleic Acids , Genetics, Medical , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , Nucleic Acids/genetics , Nucleic Acids/historyABSTRACT
The history of the ideas that led to the RNA World hypothesis is reviewed. As the understanding of the properties of RNA molecules progressed, the evolutionary interpretation of their genetic properties and widespread distribution in intracellular environments, as well as the catalytic properties of nucleotide coenzymes and the participation of RNA monomers in metabolic pathways, led to several independent proposals of protein-free primordial life forms. Current ideas on the RNA World are part of a long and storied scientific perspective in which these different hypotheses were developed. However, the lack of continuity between them may be explained in part by the absence of an evolutionary framework that characterized the early development of molecular biology, as well as by the demise of certain areas of research like coenzyme chemistry.
Subject(s)
Coenzymes/history , Coenzymes/physiology , Evolution, Molecular , Nucleic Acids/history , Origin of Life , Plants/genetics , RNA, Catalytic/genetics , RNA, Catalytic/history , RNA, Catalytic/physiology , RNA/genetics , RNA/history , Animals , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , HumansABSTRACT
Famously, James Watson credited the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA in 1953 to an X-ray diffraction photograph taken by Rosalind Franklin. Historians of molecular biology have long puzzled over a remarkably similar photograph taken two years earlier by the physicist and pioneer of protein structure William T. Astbury. They have suggested that Astbury's failure to capitalize on the photograph to solve DNA's structure was due either to his being too much of a physicist, with too little interest in or knowledge of biology, or to his being misled by an erroneous theoretical model of the gene. Drawing on previously unpublished archival sources, this paper offers a new analysis of Astbury's relationship to the problem of DNA's structure, emphasizing a previously overlooked element in Astbury's thinking: his concept of biological specificity.
Subject(s)
DNA/history , Molecular Biology/history , Nucleic Acids/history , Physics/history , X-Ray Diffraction/history , DNA/chemistry , History, 20th Century , United KingdomABSTRACT
The Cech Symposium was held in Boulder, Colorado, on July 12-13, 2007, to celebrate a triple anniversary: 25 years since the first publication reporting RNA self-splicing, 10 years since the identification of reverse transcriptase motifs in the catalytic subunit of telomerase, and 60 years since the birth of Thomas R. Cech. Past and present members of the Cech laboratory presented on their current research, which branched into many categories of study including RNA-mediated catalysis, telomerase and telomeres, new frontiers in nucleic acids, alternative splicing, as well as scientific research with direct medical applications.
Subject(s)
RNA, Catalytic/history , Telomerase/history , Alternative Splicing , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Nucleic Acids/historyABSTRACT
By the mid-1980s nucleic-acid based methods were penetrating the farthest reaches of biological science, triggering rivalries among practitioners, altering relationships among subfields, and transforming the research front. This article delivers a "bottom up" analysis of that transformation at work in one important area of biological science, plant pathology, by tracing the "molecularization" of efforts to understand and control one notorious plant disease -- the late blight of potatoes. It mobilizes the research literature of late blight science as a tool through which to trace the changing typography of the research front from 1983 to 2003. During these years molecularization intensified the traditional fragmentation of the late blight research community, even as it dramatically integrated study of the causal organism into broader areas of biology. In these decades the pathogen responsible for late blight, the oomycete "Phytophthora infestans," was discovered to be undergoing massive, frightening, and still largely unexplained genetic diversification -- a circumstance that lends the episode examined here an urgency that reinforces its historiographical significance as a case-study in the molecularization of the biological sciences.
Subject(s)
Crops, Agricultural , Nucleic Acids , Oomycetes , Pathology, Molecular , Plant Diseases , Solanum tuberosum , Crops, Agricultural/economics , Crops, Agricultural/history , Food Supply/economics , Food Supply/history , History, 20th Century , Nucleic Acids/economics , Nucleic Acids/history , Pathology, Molecular/education , Pathology, Molecular/history , Plant Diseases/economics , Plant Diseases/history , Research Personnel/education , Research Personnel/history , Research Personnel/psychology , Solanum tuberosum/economics , Solanum tuberosum/historyABSTRACT
Olga Petrivna Chepinoga, doctor of science (biology), senior scientific worker, was born on July 1, 1907, in Kyiv. She graduated from the 1st Kyiv Medical Institute (1927-1931). In 1931-1935 she worked at various medical institutions of Ukraine. In 1935 O. P. Chepinoga was employed by the Institute of Biochemistry of the National Academy of Sciences of the Ukr.SSR as a laborant, then as an assistant, junior and senior scientific worker. In 1940 O. P. Chepinoga defended a thesis for a Candidate's degree, and from 1941 she was given a rank of the senior scientific worker. During the Great Patriotic War she served in the armed forces of the Soviet Army (1941-1945) as a medical officer in the rank of captain. In 1944-1963 she worked at the Instutute of Biochemistry of the AS of the Ukr.SSR as a senior scientific worker, and in 1963-1965 headed the Laboratory of Nucleic Acids. In 1952 O. P. Chepinoga defended a thesis for Doctor's degree in biology On Biologic Role of Nucleic Acids. Investigations of O. P. Chepinoga were first devoted to oxidation processes in muscles in various physiologic conditions, physico-chemical properties of myosin and its ATPase activity. Since 1948 her scientific interests had been concentrating on studying the biologic role and metabolism of nucleic acids, their transformation in the organism in norm and in pathological states. She was the first to find that various proteins interacted with DNA molecule. The highest activity of DNAse and RNAse was revealed in the organs which permanently synthesize proteins (liver, spleen, pancreas). Under quantitative undifferentiated growth of malignant tumors (Brown-Pierse carcinoma and Crocker sarcoma) the great part belongs to the process of DNA disintegrations; DNAse activity increases considerably in the animal and human blood that is not observed at other somatic diseases and is of great diagnostic value. Considerable shifts in DNAse activity at various pathologies were not found. The enrichment of transport RNA with methyl groups with chemical modifications does not disturb the integrity of the polynucleotide chain and secondary structure but decreases their acceptor activity. O. P. Chepinoga has published 100 scientific works including one monograph and one handbook. Two candidate's theses were defended under her supervision. She was awarded the medals For Courage, For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and numerous jubilee medals.
Subject(s)
Biochemistry/history , Nucleic Acids/history , History, 20th Century , Nucleic Acids/analysis , Portraits as Topic , UkraineABSTRACT
At the beginning, the two fundamental papers by Watson and Crick published in 1953 are presented. Subsequently, the main phases of protein and nucleic acids research, starting in the middle of the 19th century, are shortly reviewed. It is outlined, how the 'protein-paradigm' was gradually developed and ultimately became widely accepted. It is then described how Caspersson in 1936 newly raised the question what the chemical nature of genes was: proteins or nucleic acids ? In the main part of this report six lines of research are reviewed, the results of which led to the demise of the 'protein paradigm', the creation of the Watson-Crick model of the DNA and the elaboration of the mechanism of DNA replication: (a) mutation experiments with UV and determination of the UV action spectrum, (b) determination of the chemical identity of the transforming agent in bacteria, (c) detailed chemical analysis of the DNA of different organisms, (d) molecular investigation of the infection of bacteria by bacteriophages, (e) X-ray analysis of DNA fibers, (f) model building and theoretical treatment of all data obtained. In this article, the factors promoting and inhibiting scientific progress in this field are described (and, above all, the relations between scientists with fixated concepts). The results from these lines of research led to the recognition of the decisive role of nucleic acids as the carriers of genetic information and, in this way, formally established the 'nucleic acid paradigm'. Finally the question is discussed why Watson and Crick found the right solution for the DNA structure (and not one of their competitors).
Subject(s)
DNA/history , Proteins/history , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Models, Molecular , Nucleic Acid Conformation , Nucleic Acids/historyABSTRACT
El Proyecto Genoma Humano, iniciado en octubre de 1990, ha permitido desentrañar, 12 años después, la secuencia nucleotídica del ADN humano. Este hecho ha producido un avance singular en la medicina moderna, posibilitando a través de la detección de las variaciones nucleotídicas en la secuencia del ADN, el desarrollo de estudios genéticos, la determinación de pronósticos y guías terapéuticas con fármacos, y el desarrollo de nuevas drogas gracias al avance de la farmacogenómica. Todo esto permitiría, en un futuro cercano, la predicción de respuestas a maniobras terapéuticas en los procedimientos de anestesia, cuidados críticos y tratamiento del dolor. Este desarrollo introduce también problemas éticos, específicamente en los campos de la terapia génica y la clonación.
Subject(s)
Humans , Base Sequence , Genetic Research , Polymorphism, Genetic , Human Genome Project/ethics , Human Genome Project/history , Genetic Techniques/ethics , Genetic Techniques/trends , Genetic Techniques , Nucleic Acids/history , Nucleic Acids/ultrastructure , Cloning, Organism/ethics , Cloning, Organism/trends , DNA Replication , Genome, Human , Genes/physiology , Genomics/methods , Genomics/trends , History of Medicine , Pharmacogenetics , Proteins/biosynthesis , Proteomics/methods , Proteomics/trends , Toxicogenetics , Genetic Therapy/ethicsABSTRACT
El Proyecto Genoma Humano, iniciado en octubre de 1990, ha permitido desentrañar, 12 años después, la secuencia nucleotídica del ADN humano. Este hecho ha producido un avance singular en la medicina moderna, posibilitando a través de la detección de las variaciones nucleotídicas en la secuencia del ADN, el desarrollo de estudios genéticos, la determinación de pronósticos y guías terapéuticas con fármacos, y el desarrollo de nuevas drogas gracias al avance de la farmacogenómica. Todo esto permitiría, en un futuro cercano, la predicción de respuestas a maniobras terapéuticas en los procedimientos de anestesia, cuidados críticos y tratamiento del dolor. Este desarrollo introduce también problemas éticos, específicamente en los campos de la terapia génica y la clonación. (AU)
