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1961 Discovery Biotechnology & genomics

Short-lived messenger RNA links genes to ribosomes

Sydney Brenner · François Jacob · Matthew Meselson · François Gros · Walter Gilbert

When we knew

Timeline date1961

Experiments identified unstable RNA copies that carry genetic information from DNA to protein-making ribosomes.

The DNA-to-RNA-to-protein pathway acquired its missing transient messenger.

What came before

Genetic information became increasingly measurable, readable, and experimentally manipulable.

What came after

Messenger RNA became a central object of later research on transcript processing, regulation, and translation.

Memory anchor

1961 · Messenger RNA