The RNA Code and Protein Synthesis

Abstract

Many properties of the RNA code which were discussed at the 1963 Cold Spring Harbor meeting were based on information obtained with randomly ordered synthetic polynucleotides. Most questions concerning the code which were raised at that time related to its fine structure, that is, the order of the bases within RNA codons. After the 1963 meetings a relatively simple means of determining nucleotide sequences of RNA codons was devised which depends upon the ability of trinucleotides of known sequence to stimulate AA-sRNA binding to ribosomes (Nirenberg and Leder, 1964). In this paper, information obtained since 1963 relating to the following topics will be discussed: