Knowra Severo Ochoa Severo Ochoa Severo Ochoa was a Spanish-American biochemist who shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning the biological synthesis of RNA and DNA.
Arthur Kornberg : An American biochemist who discovered DNA polymerase and shared the 1959 Nobel Prize with Ochoa. Kornberg shared Ochoa’s Nobel Prize for complementary discoveries on enzymatic nucleic-acid synthesis.
Polynucleotide phosphorylase : An enzyme that synthesizes or degrades RNA by transferring nucleotide groups, depending on reaction conditions. Ochoa and Marianne Grunberg-Manago identified this enzyme while investigating RNA synthesis.
University of Madrid : A public research university in Madrid, Spain, founded in 1293. Ochoa studied medicine there and received his medical degree in 1929.
Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment : A 1961 experiment that used synthetic RNA to identify the first codon-to-amino-acid correspondence. The experiment exploited synthetic poly-U RNA, made possible by polynucleotide phosphorylase, to decode a genetic message.
Marianne Grunberg-Manago : A French biochemist who co-discovered polynucleotide phosphorylase with Severo Ochoa. Her experiments with Ochoa uncovered the enzyme central to his RNA-synthesis research.
RNA : A nucleic acid that carries out varied roles in gene expression, catalysis, and cellular regulation. RNA was the product whose enzymatic synthesis Ochoa’s laboratory investigated.
Otto Meyerhof : A German physician and biochemist who studied muscle metabolism and won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Ochoa trained in Meyerhof’s laboratory, where he developed expertise in intermediary metabolism.
Genetic code : The rules by which nucleotide sequences specify amino acids during protein synthesis. Synthetic RNA produced with Ochoa’s enzyme helped researchers test how nucleotide sequences encode proteins.
George Beadle : An American geneticist who established that genes influence organisms through specific biochemical processes. Ochoa’s work addressed the molecular chemistry underlying the gene-centered biology Beadle helped establish.
Nucleotide : A molecule composed of a nitrogenous base, a sugar, and one or more phosphate groups. Nucleotides are the units joined into RNA by polynucleotide phosphorylase.
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