Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Marshall Warren Nirenberg

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Marshall Warren Nirenberg

(born April 10, 1927, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. biochemist. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He demonstrated that each possible triplet (codon) of the four different kinds of nitrogen-containing bases found in DNA and (in some viruses) in RNA (with three exceptions) ultimately causes the incorporation of a specific amino acid into a cell protein. His research earned him a Nobel Prize in 1968, which he shared with Robert William Holley and Har Gobind Khorana, whose work, like Nirenberg's, helped show how genetic instructions in the cell nucleus control the composition of proteins.

For more information on Marshall Warren Nirenberg, visit Britannica.com.

Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Scientist: Marshall Warren Nirenberg
Top

Marshall Warren Nirenberg
Library of Congress (AP photo)

[b. New York City, April 10, 1927]

In 1961 Nirenberg became the first person to determine what one letter of the genetic code stands for, using RNA. This opened the way for Nirenberg and colleagues to crack the genetic code completely by 1966, demonstrating which sequence of three nucleotide bases (a codon) determined each of 20 amino acids, along with similar three-letter codes for start and stop.


Biography: Marshall Warren Nirenberg
Top

Marshall Warren Nirenberg (born 1927) is best known for deciphering the portion of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) that is responsible for the synthesis of the numerous protein molecules which form the basis of living cells. In 1968 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

Nirenberg's research has helped to unravel the DNA genetic code, aiding, for example, in the determination of which genes code for certain hereditary traits. For his contribution to the sciences of genetics and cell biochemistry, Nirenberg was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Robert W. Holley and Har Gobind Khorana.

Nirenberg was born in New York City on April 10, 1927, and moved to Florida with his parents, Harry Edward and Minerva (Bykowsky) Nirenberg, when he was ten years old. He earned his B.S. in 1948 and his M.Sc. in biology in 1952 from the University of Florida. Nirenberg's interest in science extended beyond his formal studies. For two of his undergraduate years he worked as a teaching assistant in biology, and he also spent a brief period as a research assistant in the nutrition laboratory. In 1952, Nirenberg continued his graduate studies at the University of Michigan, this time in the field of biochemistry. Obtaining his Ph.D. in 1957, he wrote his dissertation on the uptake of hexose, a sugar molecule, by ascites tumor cells.

Shortly after earning his Ph.D., Nirenberg began his investigation into the inner workings of the genetic code as an American Cancer Society (ACS) fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Nirenberg continued his research at the NIH after the ACS fellowship ended in 1959, under another fellowship from the Public Health Service (PHS). In 1960, when the PHS fellowship ended, he joined the NIH staff permanently as a research scientist in biochemistry.

After only a brief time conducting research at the NIH, Nirenberg made his mark in genetic research with the most important scientific breakthrough since James D. Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1953. Specifically, he discovered the process for unraveling the code of DNA. This process allows scientists to determine the genetic basis of particular hereditary traits. In August of 1961, Nirenberg announced his discovery during a routine presentation of a research paper at a meeting of the International Congress of Biochemistry in Moscow.

Nirenberg's research involved the genetic code sequences for amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. They link together to form the numerous protein molecules present in the human body. Nirenberg discovered how to determine which sequences patterns code for which amino acids (there are about 20 known amino acids).

Nirenberg's discovery has led to a better understanding of genetically determined diseases and, more controversially, to further research into the controlling of hereditary traits, or genetic engineering. For his research, Nirenberg was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine. He shared the honor with scientists Har Gobind Khorana and Robert W. Holley. After receiving the Nobel Prize, Nirenberg switched his research focus to other areas of biochemistry, including cellular control mechanisms and the cell differentiation process.

Since first being hired by the NIH in 1960, Nirenberg has served in different capacities. From 1962 until 1966 he was Head of the Section for Biochemical Genetics, National Heart Institute. Since 1966 he has been serving as the Chief of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Other honors bestowed upon Nirenberg, in addition to the Nobel Prize, include honorary membership in the Harvey Society, the Molecular Biology Award from the National Academy of Sciences (1962), National Medal of Science presented by President Lyndon B. Johnson (1965), and the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biochemistry (1968). Nirenberg also received numerous honorary degrees from distinguished universities, including the University of Michigan (1965), University of Chicago (1965), Yale University (1965), University of Windsor (1966), George Washington University (1972), and the Weizmann Institute in Israel (1978). Nirenberg is a member of several professional societies, including the National Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the American Chemical Society, the Biophysical Society, and the Society for Developmental Biology.

Nirenberg married biochemist Perola Zaltzman in 1961. While described as being a reserved man who engages in little else besides scientific research, Nirenberg has been a strong advocate of government support for scientific research, believing this to be an important factor for the advancement of science.

Further Reading

Wasson, Tyler, editor, Nobel Prize Winners, H. W. Wilson, 1987, pp. 767-768.

New York Times, October 12, 1982, p. C3.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Marshall Warren Nirenberg
Top
Nirenberg, Marshall Warren, 1927-, American biochemist, b. New York, N.Y., Ph.D., Univ. of Michigan, 1947. He spent his entire career as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health. Nirenberg was a co-recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Har Gobind Khorana and Robert W. Holley for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis. Nirenberg found that the arrangement of the four types of nucleotides on the DNA molecule (see nucleic acid) determines both the chemical composition and the function of new cells.
Wikipedia: Marshall Warren Nirenberg
Top
Marshall Warren Nirenberg

Marshall Warren Nirenberg
Born April 10, 1927 (age 81)
Nationality U.S.
Alma mater University of Michigan
Known for genetic code
Notable awards Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968

Marshall Warren Nirenberg (born April 10, 1927) is a U.S. biochemist and 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.

Contents

Research

By 1959, experiments and analysis such as the Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment, the Hershey-Chase experiment, the Watson-Crick structure and the Meselson-Stahl experiment had shown DNA to be the molecule of genetic information. It was not known, however, 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, ribosomes 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 codons of the genetic code and the first demonstration of messenger RNA (see Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment).[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

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 glycine. The next breakthrough came when Philip 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.

Notes

  1. ^ Leder, P; Nirenberg, M W (1964), "RNA Codewords and Protein Synthesis, 3. On the Nucleotide Sequence of a Cysteine and a Leucine RNA Codeword.", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 52: 1521–1529, 1964 December, doi:10.1073/pnas.52.6.1521, PMID 14243527, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/52/6/1521 
  2. ^ Eiserling, F; Levin, J G; Byrne, R; Karlsson, U (1964), "Polyribosomes and DNA-dependent Amino Acid Incorporation in Escherichia coli Extracts.", Journal of Molecular Biology 10: 536–40, 1964 December, doi:10.1016/S0022-2836(64)80073-5, PMID 14257696 
  3. ^ BLADEN, H A; BYRNE, R; LEVIN, J G; NIRENBERG, M W (1965), "AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDY OF A DNA-RIBOSOME COMPLEX FORMED IN VITRO.", J. Mol. Biol. 11: 78–83, 1965 Jan, doi:10.1016/S0022-2836(65)80172-3, PMID 14255762 
  4. ^ BERNFIELD, M R; NIRENBERG, M W (1965), "RNA CODEWORDS AND PROTEIN SYNTHESIS. THE NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCES OF MULTIPLE CODEWORDS FOR PHENYLALANINE, SERINE, LEUCINE, AND PROLINE.", Science 147: 479–84, 1965 Jan 29, doi:10.1126/science.147.3657.479, PMID 14237203 
  5. ^ TRUPIN, J S; ROTTMAN, F M; BRIMACOMBE, R L; LEDER, P (1965), "RNA CODEWORDS AND PROTEIN SYNTHESIS, VI. ON THE NUCLEOTIDE SEQUENCES OF DEGENERATE CODEWORD SETS FOR ISOLEUCINE, TYROSINE, ASPARAGINE, AND LYSINE.", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 53: 807–11, 1965 Apr, doi:10.1073/pnas.53.4.807, PMID 14324538 
  6. ^ Jones, O W; Nirenberg, M W (1966), "Degeneracy in the amino acid code.", Biochim. Biophys. Acta 119 (2): 400–6, 1966 May 19, PMID 5335948 
  7. ^ Kellogg, D A; Doctor, B P; Loebel, J E; Nirenberg, M W (1966), "RNA codons and protein synthesis. IX. Synonym codon recognition by multiple species of valine-, alanine-, and methionine-sRNA.", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 55 (4): 912–9, 1966 Apr, doi:10.1073/pnas.55.4.912, PMID 5327071 

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." [1]

Further reading


 
 

 

Copyrights:

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Scientist. History of Science and Technology, edited by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Biography. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Marshall Warren Nirenberg" Read more