Chapter VI 



Biosynthesis of RNA in Relation to 

 Genetic Coding Proljlenis 



ELLIOT VOLKIN 



Biology Division, 



Oak Ridge National Laboratory,'^ 



Oak Ridge, Tennessee 



I. Introduction 271 



II. Evidence Implicating an RNA Species as a Carrier of 



Genetic Information 273 



A. The DNA-like RNA in Bacteriophage Infection 273 



B. Gradient Centrifugation of Cell Components 273 



C. Messenger RNA-Homologous DNA Hybrids 275 



D. RNA Turnover 275 



E. Messenger RNA in Other Biologic Systems 276 



III. Mechanism of Messenger RNA Function Based on 



in Vivo Experiments 277 



A. Enzyme Induction 277 



B. Bacteriophage Infection 278 



IV. Attempts at Isolation of a Messenger RNA 279 



V. In Vitro Synthesis of RNA 280 



A. Polj'nucleotide Phosphorylase 280 



B. RNA Polymerase 280 



VI. RNA Involvement in in Vitro Protein Synthesis 281 



A. Requirement for DNA-Directed RNA Synthesis 281 



B. The Use of Polynucleotides in Establishing the Code .... 282 



C. Correlations with Plant Virus Mutants 284 



VII. The Triplet Code 284 



VIII. Summary 286 



References 286 



I. Introduction 



A tremendous concentration of research effort on the nucleic acids 



from the late 1940's through the early 1960's has culminated in what 

 many respected investigators believe to be the essentially complete 



* Operated by Union Carbide Corporation for the United States Atomic Energy 

 Commission. 



271 



