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  4. Whose experiments cracked the DNA and discovered unequivocally that a genetic code is a triplet?

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Q. Whose experiments cracked the DNA and discovered unequivocally that a genetic code is a triplet?

Haryana PMTHaryana PMT 2010

Solution:

The existence of triplet code was simply an assumption till $1961$, when Nirenberg and Mathaei proved its existence by experiments. They were able to synthesise artificial, mRNA which contained only one nitrogenous base, ie, uracil. This synthetic poly $U$ sequence was placed in a cell free system containing protein synthesising enzymes (extracted from bacterium E. coli) and $20$ amino acids togeth;- with necessary ATP. During the process, a sma_ polypeptide molecule was produce which was formed by the linking of phenylalanine. This suggested that $UUU$ is the code for phenyl alanine. Nirenberg got Nobel Prize for ha contributions.