Molecular biologists, role

Ironically, in the first half of the Twentieth century, molecular biologists rejected nucleic acids as a genetic material, since they seemed entirely too simple, compared to proteins, to play roles in both heredity and development. 

As of the early 1980s. numerous hypotheses have been formulated by molecular biologists and this fundamental discovery has stimulated a whole new line of research in many laboratories throughout the world. Some scientists have observed that the extra DNA cannot be accounted for simply upon the basis of evolutionary theories. The extra DNA may play a role in controlling gene expression. The complexity and current uncertainty of these hypotheses are beyond the scope of this book at this juncture in the research program. Perhaps the lopic will be better clarified at the lime of the next edition. Several of the references listed shed further insights. 

Because the role of plant enzymes in host-plant resistance to insects is poorly understood at both an ecological and mechanistic level, the enhancement and/or transfer of genes for crop improvement should proceed with caution. The combined input of molecular biologists, agronomists, food scientists, plant pathologists, weed scientists, and entomologists is needed to achieve optimal success in crop improvements. 

Manganese plays a critical role in oxygen evolution catalyzed by the proteins of the photosynthetic reaction center. The superoxide dismutase of bacteria and mitochondria, as well as pyruvate carboxylase in mammals, are also manganese proteins. How the multiple manganese atoms of the photosynthetic reaction center participate in the removal of four electrons and protons from water is the subject of intense investigation by spectroscopists, synthetic inorganic chemists, and molecular biologists. ... 

British molecular biologist, who in 1951 teamed up with James Watson at Cambridge University to try to find the structure of DNA This they achieved in 1953, using the X-ray diffraction data of Rosalind FranJ (1920-58) and Maurice Wilkins (1916-2004). Crick went on to investigate codons and the role of transfer RNA. Crick, Watson, and Wilkins shared a Nobel Prize in 1962. 

Nature has provided us with innumerable examples of specific interactions, many of which play a vital role in determining life processes. As the molecular biologist... 

Kimura s theory has not been universally accepted, and the debate between selectionism and neutralism is still going on, but the experimental data have changed for good our view of molecular evolution. Today, biologists are aware that neutral mutations are a fact of life, and that genetic drift is, at the molecular level, at least as important, if not more important, than natural selection. It must also be noticed that this does not diminish in the least the key role of natural selection in phenotypic evolution, and Kimura himself explicitely acknowledged that The basic mechanism of adaptive evolution is without doubt natural selection. He added however that Underneath the remarkable procession of life and indeed deep down... 

---