Marshall Warren Nirenberg 762368 221784781 2008-06-26T02:30:49Z Ceyockey 150564 /* External links */ added further reading item {{Infobox Scientist |name = Marshall Warren Nirenberg |box_width = |image =MNirenberg.jpg |image_width =150px |caption = Marshall Warren Nirenberg |birth_date = [[April 10]], [[1927]] |birth_place = |death_date = |death_place = |residence = |citizenship = |nationality = [[United States of America|U.S.]] |ethnicity = |field = |work_institutions = |alma_mater = |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = [[genetic code]] |author_abbrev_bot = |author_abbrev_zoo = |influences = |influenced = |prizes = [[Image:Nobel prize medal.svg|20px]][[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in [[1968]] |religion = |footnotes = |signature = }} '''Marshall Warren Nirenberg''' (born [[April 10]], [[1927]]) is a [[United States of America|U.S.]] [[biochemist]] and [[genetics|geneticist]]. He shared a [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in [[1968]] with [[Har Gobind Khorana]] and [[Robert W. Holley]] for describing the [[genetic code]] and how it operates in protein synthesis. In the same year, together with Har Gobind Khorana, he was awarded the [[Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize]] from [[Columbia University]]. ==Research== By 1959, experiments by [[Oswald Avery]], [[Francis Crick]], [[James D. Watson]], and others had shown [[DNA]] to be the molecule of genetic information. It was not known, however, how DNA was replicated, how DNA directed the expression of proteins, or what role [[RNA]] had in these processes. Nirenberg teamed up with [[Heinrich J. Matthaei]] at the [[National Institutes of Health]] to answer these questions. They produced RNA comprised solely of [[uracil]], a [[nucleotide]] that only occurs in RNA. They then added this synthetic poly-uracil RNA into a cell-free extract of [[Escherichia coli]] which contained the DNA, RNA, [[ribosome]]s and other cellular machinery for [[protein]] synthesis. They added DNase, which breaks apart the DNA, so that no additional proteins would be produced other than that from their synthetic RNA. They then added 1 radioactively labeled [[amino acid]], the building blocks of proteins, and 19 unlabeled amino acids to the extract, varying the labeled amino acid in each sample. In the extract containing the radioactively labeled [[phenylalanine]], the resulting protein was also radioactive. They realized that they had found the genetic code for phenylalanine: UUU (three uracil bases in a row) on RNA. This was the first step in deciphering the [[codon]]s of the genetic code and the first demonstration of [[messenger RNA]] (''see [[Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment]]'')<ref>{{Citation | id = PMID 14243527 | url= http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/52/6/1521 | last=Leder | first=P | last2=Nirenberg | first2=M W | publication-date=1964 Dec | year=1964 | title=RNA Codewords and Protein Synthesis, 3. On the Nucleotide Sequence of a Cysteine and a Leucine RNA Codeword. | volume=52 | issue= | periodical=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]] | pages=1521&ndash;1529 }}</ref><!--PDF reprint appears to be available to the general public.--><ref>{{Citation | id = PMID 14257696 | url= | last=Eiserling | first=F | last2=Levin | first2=J G | last3=Byrne | first3=R | last4=Karlsson | first4=U | publication-date=1964 Dec | year=1964 | title=Polyribosomes and DNA-dependent Amino Acid Incorporation in ''Escherichia coli'' Extracts. | volume=10 | issue= | periodical=[[Journal of Molecular Biology]] | pages=536&ndash;40 }}</ref><!-- 1964 predates the availability of online records at the Journal's website.--><ref>{{Citation |id = [[PMID]]:14255762 |url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14255762 |last=BLADEN |first=H A |last2=BYRNE |first2=R |last3=LEVIN |first3=J G |last4=NIRENBERG |first4=M W |publication-date=1965 Jan |year=1965 |title=AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDY OF A DNA-RIBOSOME COMPLEX FORMED IN VITRO. |volume=11 |issue= |periodical=J. Mol. Biol. |pages=78-83 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |id = [[PMID]]:14237203 |url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14237203 |last=BERNFIELD |first=M R |last2=NIRENBERG |first2=M W |publication-date=1965 Jan 29 |year=1965 |title=RNA CODEWORDS AND PROTEIN SYNTHESIS. THE NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCES OF MULTIPLE CODEWORDS FOR PHENYLALANINE, SERINE, LEUCINE, AND PROLINE. |volume=147 |issue= |periodical=[[Science Magazine|Science]] |pages=479-84 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |id = [[PMID]]:14324538 |url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14324538 |last=TRUPIN |first=J S |last2=ROTTMAN |first2=F M |last3=BRIMACOMBE |first3=R L |last4=LEDER |first4=P |publication-date=1965 Apr |year=1965 |title=RNA CODEWORDS AND PROTEIN SYNTHESIS, VI. ON THE NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCES OF DEGENERATE CODEWORD SETS FOR ISOLEUCINE, TYROSINE, ASPARAGINE, AND LYSINE. |volume=53 |issue= |periodical=[[PNAS|Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.]] |pages=807-11 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |id = [[PMID]]:5335948 |url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5335948 |last=Jones |first=O W |last2=Nirenberg |first2=M W |publication-date=1966 May 19 |year=1966 |title=Degeneracy in the amino acid code. |volume=119 |issue=2 |periodical=Biochim. Biophys. Acta |pages=400-6 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |id = [[PMID]]:5327071 |url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5327071 |last=Kellogg |first=D A |last2=Doctor |first2=B P |last3=Loebel |first3=J E |last4=Nirenberg |first4=M W |publication-date=1966 Apr |year=1966 |title=RNA codons and protein synthesis. IX. Synonym codon recognition by multiple species of valine-, alanine-, and methionine-sRNA. |volume=55 |issue=4 |periodical=[[PNAS|Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.]] |pages=912-9 }}</ref>. Nirenberg received great scientific attention for these experiments. Within a few years, his research team had performed similar experiments and found that three-base repeats of [[adenosine]] (AAA) produced the amino acid [[lysine]], [[cytosine]] repeats (CCC) produced [[proline]] and [[guanine]] repeats (GGG) produced nothing at all. The next breakthrough came when Phillip Leder, a postdoctoral researcher in Nirenberg's lab, developed a method for determining the genetic code on pieces of [[tRNA]] (''see [[Nirenberg and Leder experiment]]''). This greatly sped up the assignment of three-base codons to amino acids so that 50 codons were identified in this way. Khorana's experiments confirmed these results and completed the genetic code translation. Nirenberg's later research focused on [[neuroscience]], neural development, and the [[homeobox]] genes. ==Biography== Nirenberg was born in [[New York City]], the son of Harry and Minerva Nirenberg. He developed rheumatic fever as a boy, so the family moved to [[Orlando, Florida]] to take advantage of the subtropical climate. He developed an early interest in biology. In 1948 he received his B.S. degree, and in 1952, a master's degree in [[zoology]] from the [[University of Florida]] at Gainesville. His dissertation for the Master's thesis was an ecological and taxonomic study of caddis flies (Trichoptera). He received his Ph.D. in [[biochemistry]] from the [[University of Michigan]], Ann Arbor in 1957. He began his postdoctoral work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1957 as a fellow of the [[American Cancer Society]]. In 1960 became a research biochemist at the NIH. In 1959 he began to study the steps that relate DNA, RNA and protein. Nirenberg's groundbreaking experiments advanced him to become the head of the Section of Biochemical Genetics in 1962. He was married in 1961 to Perola Zaltzman, a chemist from the University of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. Nirenberg was awarded the [[National Medal of Science]] in 1966 and the [[National Medal of Honor]] in 1968 by President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. He was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 2001. ==References== <references/> *Voet, Donald and Judith G. Voet. 1995. ''Biochemistry 2nd ed.'' John Wilely & Sons, New York. *U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Profiles in Science: The Marshall W. Nirenberg Papers." [http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/JJ/] ==Further reading== *[http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1968/nirenberg-bio.html Nobel Biography] *[http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/JJ/ NIH Profiles in Science] *[http://www.vega.org.uk/video/programme/129 Free to View Video Interview with Marshall W. Nirenberg] provided by the Vega Science Trust. * [http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/horwitz/ The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize] * {{cite news | author=[[Ed Regis]] | title=The Forgotten Code Cracker | <!-- website down at time I was updating this.-->url= | format=print | work=[[Scientific American]] | publisher=Scientific American, Inc. | id=PMID | pages=50&ndash;51 | date=November 2007 | accessdate=2008-06-26 | quote=(subtitle) In the 1960's Marshall W. Nirenberg deciphered the genetic code, the combination of A, T, G and C nucleotides that specify amino acids. So why do people think that Francis Crick did it? }} <!-- add PMID if avaialble)--> {{Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Laureates 1951-1975}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Nirenberg, Marshall Warren}} [[Category:1927 births]] [[Category:Members of the National Academy of Sciences]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American biochemists]] [[Category:American geneticists]] [[Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine]] [[Category:Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences]] [[Category:National Medal of Science laureates]] [[Category:University of Florida alumni]] [[Category:Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts]] [[ca:Marshall Warren Nirenberg]] [[de:Marshall Warren Nirenberg]] [[es:Marshall Warren Nirenberg]] [[hr:Marshall W. Nirenberg]] [[id:Marshall Nirenberg]] [[it:Marshall Warren Nirenberg]] [[he:מרשל וורן נירנברג]] [[sw:Marshall Nirenberg]] [[ja:マーシャル・ニーレンバーグ]] [[pl:Marshall Nirenberg]] [[pt:Marshall Warren Nirenberg]] [[fi:Marshall Nirenberg]] [[sv:Marshall W. Nirenberg]] [[zh:馬歇爾·沃倫·尼倫伯格]]