The discovery of the mechanisms of biological synthesis of nucleic acids: 1959 Nobel laureates S. Ochoa and A. Kornberg

Abstract

Alongside the chemical and physical research of nucleic acids in the 1940s-50s, the mechanisms of their biosynthesis were investigated. Thus, in 1959, Severo Ochoa and Arthur Kornberg were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the mechanisms of biological synthesis of RNA and DNA. The experiments performed by Ochoa and Kornberg are considered today the cornerstone of genetic engineering, as they first demonstrated the possibility of synthesizing RNA and DNA outside the living cell, and also as the enzymes they discovered were among the first tools of this technology.

Keywords

• severo ochoa
• arthur kornberg
• rna
• dna
• enzymes
• polynucleotide phosphorylase
• dna polymerase i
• dna ligase
• replication