INDUCED ENZYME FORMATION 



The Chemical Nature of the Template 



A template which is to serve as a device for protein syn- 

 thesis must be at least as complicated and as large as the molecule 

 which it is forming. Other than the protein molecule itself, 

 there are relatively few candidates one can propose which can 

 satisfy the two criteria of size and informational complexity. 

 With these restrictions in mind, the two known possibilities are 

 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). 



In the following paragraphs we will briefly examine the 

 available evidence for and against the possibility that one or the 

 other of these substances is associated with the enzyme-forming 

 mechanism. 



DNA AS A COMPONENT OF EFS 



Evidence from work with the transformation principles 

 (39,105) offers convincing evidence that genetic information can 

 be stored in and transmitted through DNA. The potentiality, 

 therefore, of forming any specific kind of protein molecule must 

 ultimately be referable to the DNA of the cell. The question, 

 however, which we would like to entertain at present, is whether 

 DNA is directly and personally involved in the synthesis of protein 

 or whether it effects its influence via an intermediary. De- 

 finitive evidence one way or the other is, at present, not available. 

 Presumably, an unequivocal demonstration will ultimately 

 emerge from experiments analogous to those being performed 

 in the laboratories of Brachet (9) and Mazia (40,49) with enu- 

 cleated fragments of ameba. At present, the best that can be 

 offered is a series of experiments inquiring whether a correlation 

 can be established between the metabolic activity or state of 

 DNA and the act of protein synthesis. 



There exists a variety of experiments in which it is possible 

 to demonstrate a complete dissociation of DNA metabolism from 

 protein synthesis. DNA formation is known (1) to be far more 

 sensitive to inhibition by radiation with x-rays than is protein 

 formation. Baron, Spiegelman, and Quastler (5) have shown 



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