The RNA code: Nature’s Rosetta Stone

Marshall Nirenberg and Heinrich Matthaei initiated their biochemical approach to elucidating the genetic code in 1959, 6 years following the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA (1). At the time, geneticists were using T4 bacteriophage mutagenesis/reversion of plaque morphology toward the same goal by inferring that three mutations were needed to specify an amino acid (2). The genetic code challenge was to link the nucleic acid sequence composed of four bases to translation of 20 amino acids. Nirenberg presented his breakthrough announcement twice at the 1961 International Congress of Biochemistry (ICB) in Moscow: the first presentation to a small audience and the second, at the urging and support of Francis Crick, to the entire congress.