Reconstitution of Active Tobacco Mosaic Virus 

 from Its Inactive Protein and Nucleic Acid 

 Components* 



H. FRAENKEL-CONRAT and ROBLEY C. WILLIAMS 



Reprinted by authors' and publisher's permis- 

 sion from Proceedings of the National Acadefny 

 of Sciences, vol. 41, 1955, pp. 690-698. 



One of the most remarkable a?id exciting achievements m bio- 

 logical research in recent years was the reconstitutioji of active 

 tobacco mosaic virus (abbreviated ^''TMV'') from its ina?iimate 

 co?istitue?it parts by Fraenkel-Conrat and Williams. While the dis- 

 tinctio?i between "life"" and "jion-life'" is a difficult thing to define 

 at the level of the virus, this piece of research i?idicates that a sub- 

 sta?ice considered to be livifig can be artificially cojistructed from 

 substafices considered to be ?w?i-living. Our bodies perfor?n this 

 transformatioti daily, of course, but it is the experimejital reproduc- 

 tion of it that is impressive in this work. 



Once more, in this paper, we see the i?}iportance of the introduc- 

 tion of new weapo?is into the arse?7al of biology. The development 

 of the electron microscope by the physicists found its greatest use 

 and significance ifi its application to biological problejtis of ultra- 

 structure, and it appears likely that it will do much to destroy the 

 boimdaries betwee?i physics and biology as distinct sciences, just 

 as the study of the gene has done rmich to eliminate distinctions 

 between chemistry a?id biology. At certaiji levels of biological in- 

 vestigation all boundaries disappear, and biology becomes a ques- 

 tion of physico-chemical relationships. 



Much recent evidence from chem- 

 ical, physicochemical, electron micro- 

 scopical, and X-ray studies has resulted 



* Aided by a grant from the National 

 Foundation for Infantile Paralysis and re- 

 search grant No. C-2245 from the National 

 Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of 

 Health, Public Health Service. 



264 



in a definite concept of the structure 

 of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) 

 particle. ^"^ It appears that about 2,800 



1 Harris, J. I., and Knight, C. A., Nature 

 170:613, 1952, and /. Biol. Chem. 214:231, 

 1955; Schramm, G., Z. Naturforsch., lb 112: 

 249, 1947; Watson, J. D., Bioclmn. et biophys. 

 acta 13:10, 1954; Franklin, R., Nature 175: 

 379, 1955. 



