The sequence hypothesis was first formally proposed in the review "On Protein Synthesis" [1] by Francis Crick in 1958. [2] It states that the sequence of bases in the genetic material ( DNA or RNA) determines the sequence of amino acids for which that segment of nucleic acid codes, and this amino acid sequence determines the three-dimensional structure into which the protein folds. The three-dimensional structure of a protein is required for a protein to be functional. This hypothesis then lays the essential link between information stored and inherited in nucleic acids to the chemical processes which enable life to exist. [3]
Or, as Crick put it in 1958:
In its simplest form it [the Sequence Hypothesis] assumes that the specificity of a piece of nucleic acid is expressed solely by the sequence of its bases, and that this sequence is a (simple) code for the amino acid sequence of a particular protein. This hypothesis appears to be rather widely held. Its virtue is that it unites several remarkable pairs of generalisations: the central biochemical importance of proteins and the dominating role of genes, and in particular of their nucleic acid; the linearity of protein molecules (considered covalently) and the genetic linearity within the functional gene [...]; the simplicity of the composition of protein molecules and the simplicity of the nucleic acids.
— Francis Crick [4]
This description is further amplified in the article and, in discussing how a protein folds up into its three-dimensional structure, Crick suggested that "the folding is simply a function of the order of the amino acids" in the protein. [5]
References
- ^ Crick, F. H. (1958). "On protein synthesis". Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology. 12: 138–163. PMID 13580867.
- ^ Crick 1958.
- ^ Brenner, Sydney (2014). "Retrospective Frederick Sanger (1918-2013)". Science. 343 (6168): 262. Bibcode: 2014Sci...343..262B. doi: 10.1126/science.1249912. PMID 24436413. S2CID 45663657.
- ^ Crick 1958, p. 152.
- ^ Crick 1958, p. 144.
See also
The sequence hypothesis was first formally proposed in the review "On Protein Synthesis" [1] by Francis Crick in 1958. [2] It states that the sequence of bases in the genetic material ( DNA or RNA) determines the sequence of amino acids for which that segment of nucleic acid codes, and this amino acid sequence determines the three-dimensional structure into which the protein folds. The three-dimensional structure of a protein is required for a protein to be functional. This hypothesis then lays the essential link between information stored and inherited in nucleic acids to the chemical processes which enable life to exist. [3]
Or, as Crick put it in 1958:
In its simplest form it [the Sequence Hypothesis] assumes that the specificity of a piece of nucleic acid is expressed solely by the sequence of its bases, and that this sequence is a (simple) code for the amino acid sequence of a particular protein. This hypothesis appears to be rather widely held. Its virtue is that it unites several remarkable pairs of generalisations: the central biochemical importance of proteins and the dominating role of genes, and in particular of their nucleic acid; the linearity of protein molecules (considered covalently) and the genetic linearity within the functional gene [...]; the simplicity of the composition of protein molecules and the simplicity of the nucleic acids.
— Francis Crick [4]
This description is further amplified in the article and, in discussing how a protein folds up into its three-dimensional structure, Crick suggested that "the folding is simply a function of the order of the amino acids" in the protein. [5]
References
- ^ Crick, F. H. (1958). "On protein synthesis". Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology. 12: 138–163. PMID 13580867.
- ^ Crick 1958.
- ^ Brenner, Sydney (2014). "Retrospective Frederick Sanger (1918-2013)". Science. 343 (6168): 262. Bibcode: 2014Sci...343..262B. doi: 10.1126/science.1249912. PMID 24436413. S2CID 45663657.
- ^ Crick 1958, p. 152.
- ^ Crick 1958, p. 144.