Editing Messenger RNA (section)

== History ==
Several molecular biology studies during the 1950s indicated that RNA played some kind of role in protein synthesis, but that role was not clearly understood. For instance, in one of the earliest reports, [[Jacques Monod]] and his team showed that RNA synthesis was necessary for protein synthesis, specifically during the production of the enzyme [[β-galactosidase]] in the bacterium ''[[Escherichia coli|E. coli]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal | vauthors = Monod J, Pappenheimer AM, Cohen-Bazire G |date=1952 |title=La cinétique de la biosynthèse de la β-galactosidase chez E. coli considérée comme fonction de la croissance  |journal=Biochimica et Biophysica Acta |language=fr |volume=9 |issue=6 |pages=648–660 |doi=10.1016/0006-3002(52)90227-8|pmid=13032175 }}</ref> [[Arthur Pardee]] also found similar RNA accumulation in 1954''.''<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Pardee AB | title = Nucleic Acid Precursors and Protein Synthesis | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 40 | issue = 5 | pages = 263–270 | date = May 1954 | pmid = 16589470 | pmc = 534118 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.40.5.263 | bibcode = 1954PNAS...40..263P | doi-access = free }}</ref> In 1953, [[Alfred Hershey]], June Dixon, and [[Martha Chase]] described a certain cytosine-containing DNA (indicating it was RNA) that disappeared quickly after its synthesis in ''E. coli''.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Hershey AD, Dixon J, Chase M | title = Nucleic acid economy in bacteria infected with bacteriophage T2. I. Purine and pyrimidine composition | journal = The Journal of General Physiology | volume = 36 | issue = 6 | pages = 777–789 | date = July 1953 | pmid = 13069681 | pmc = 2147416 | doi = 10.1085/jgp.36.6.777 }}</ref> In hindsight, this may have been one of the first observations of the existence of mRNA but it was not recognized at the time as such.<ref name="Cobb">{{cite journal |author-link1=Matthew Cobb |vauthors=Cobb M |date=29 June 2015 |title=Who discovered messenger RNA? |journal=Current Biology |volume=25 |issue=13 |pages=R526–R532 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2015.05.032 |pmid=26126273 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2015CBio...25.R526C }}</ref>

The idea of mRNA was first conceived by [[Sydney Brenner]] and [[Francis Crick]] on 15 April 1960 at [[King's College, Cambridge]], while [[François Jacob]] was telling them about a recent experiment conducted by [[Arthur Pardee]], himself, and Monod (the so-called PaJaMo experiment, which did not prove mRNA existed but suggested the possibility of its existence). With Crick's encouragement, Brenner and Jacob immediately set out to test this new hypothesis, and they contacted [[Matthew Meselson]] at the [[California Institute of Technology]] for assistance. During the summer of 1960, Brenner, Jacob, and Meselson conducted an experiment in Meselson's laboratory at Caltech which was the first to prove the existence of mRNA. That fall, Jacob and Monod coined the name "messenger RNA" and developed the first theoretical framework to explain its function.<ref name="Cobb" />

In February 1961, [[James Watson]] revealed that his [[Harvard University|Harvard]]-based research group had been right behind them with a series of experiments whose results pointed in roughly the same direction. Brenner and the others agreed to Watson's request to delay publication of their research findings. As a result, the Brenner and Watson articles were published simultaneously in the same issue of ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' in May 1961, while that same month, Jacob and Monod published their theoretical framework for mRNA in the ''[[Journal of Molecular Biology]]''.<ref name="Cobb" />