The Arthur Kornberg Papers - "Creating Life in the Test Tube," 1959-1970
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman - Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering Life Sciences |
| Special Topic(s): |
History of Technology |
| Learning Resource Type: | Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: | WWW |
| Author(s): | National Institute of Health - NIH |
| Description: | NIH site organized around the following topics: * Biographical Information * From Physician to Enzyme Hunter, 1942-1953 * The Synthesis of DNA, 1953-1959 * "Creating Life in the Test Tube," 1959-1970 * Astonishing Machines of Replication: Stanford, 1970 - Present * Further Readings * Glossary. The site contains site documents and visuals. Excerpt: "In the congenial, tailor-made working environment he was able to create at Stanford, Kornberg continued his efforts to synthesize a genetically active DNA, working with a variety of bacteria. This proved far more difficult than just copying a template DNA; any imperfection in the template doomed the viability of the DNA. And it was almost impossible to avoid damaging the large template DNA molecules while handling them in the lab. Kornberg turned instead to some of the smallest bacterial viruses (phages), such as the phi X174 and M13 viruses of E. coli, for his study. With their comparatively short DNA strands, these viruses are easier to keep intact during handling, and their biological activity is easy to observe. Robert Sinsheimer had found that the phi X 174 virus DNA was a circular single strand, but immediately after entering its host, enzymes converted it to the familiar double helix. That DNA by itself--with no protein coat--could infect another host cell. A similar pattern was found in the M13 virus. Kornberg and his team were able to synthesize both viral DNAs, but not in the circular forms; and the circular form seemed essential for infectivity. Was there an enzyme that could seal the free ends of the synthesized strands together, and also seal any breaks in the DNA? There was: in 1967, five different research groups, including Kornberg's, found the enzyme DNA ligase. By the end of that year, Kornberg had synthesized a phi X174 DNA with the same circular form, composition, sequence, and infectivity of DNA from the natural virus." |
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| Keywords: | DNA, Kornberg |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: | History of the synthesis of DNA. |
| Difficulty: | Medium |
| Interactivity Level: | Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | November 2007 |
| Platform/Format: | WWW |
| Cost: | Free |
| Download URL: | http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/WH/Views/Exhibit/narrative/creating... |
| Metadata: | IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
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