GENETIC CONTROL 39 



If 3 or 5 nucleotide pairs* are required for coding each amino acid, a 

 locus seems to be large enough for controlling the arrangement of 200-2000 

 amino acids. This corresponds to polypeptides weighing 20,000 to 200,000, 

 which is in the range of molecular weight of proteins. In the light of these 

 estimations, it does not appear unreasonable to assume that each amino 

 acid in a polypeptide might be controlled genetically. The gene might thus 

 contain a complete blue print of the amino acid sequence, and control all 

 the details of the primary structure of the corresponding protein. 



* One nucleotide pair in the double helix does not carry more information than 

 one single nucleotide in a single strand. 



