FoundationalConceptsNeuroscience

ACCHUCAAA CHA Cla

TGGAA DNA

GHA WeAAS Gr

Transcription

UGGAAG HP UGAAGSGU mRNA

Translation

Trp Lys Phe Glu Gly Protein

Amino Acids

Figure 4.4. Transcription of nucleotide sequence in DNA into a nucleotide

sequence in messenger RNA, followed by translation of the mRNA sequence

into a sequence of amino acids linked to form a protein. Each amino acid is

coded for by a sequence of three nucleotides, called a codon. Amino acids are

here represented by three-letter abbreviations: Trp = tryptophan, Lys = lysine,

Phe = phenylalanine, Glu = glutamic acid, and Gly = glycine.

The general form of all these processes and the nature of the
genetic code were elucidated through the combined work of many
investigators in the decade after the publication of the double helix
structure of DNA. And thus was born the discipline of molecular
biology and the seeds of what has since become a vast industry of
biotechnology. Recall that only a few years earlier it had been thought
by some that attempts to uncover the physical basis of life and to ex-
plain phenomena such as heredity in terms of physical mechanisms
might lead to an impasse and precipitate some kind of revolutionary
expansion of the scientific framework—perhaps some sort of “new