Researched
Gene regulation (operon)
Jacob and Monod's operon model (1961) showed that genes are switched on and off and that messenger RNA carries the message.
Open in the interactive tree →François Jacob and Jacques Monod worked out in bacteria how the lac operon turns the genes for lactose digestion on and off, and in 1961 proposed that an unstable messenger RNA copies genes to the ribosomes. The messenger-RNA idea was confirmed the same year (Brenner, Jacob and Meselson) and made cracking the genetic code possible. The idea of regulatory switches is the root of developmental biology and of synthetic gene circuits; Jacob and Monod shared the 1965 Nobel Prize with André Lwoff.
Prerequisites
- Enzymes: life without cells1897The lac operon was worked out by studying how cells switch on a sugar-digesting enzyme
- DNA is the hereditary molecule1944
- Structure of DNA1953
Unlocks
- The genetic code1966Messenger RNA, shown in 1961, made decoding the code possible
- Catalytic RNA and the RNA world1982-1983
- RNA interference1998
- Synthetic genomes2025Synthetic gene circuits copy operon-style genetic switches
Sources
More in Biology & Genetics · Atomic & Space Age
- Honeybee dance language decoded1946-1967
- Cell culture and HeLa cells1951
- Structure of DNA1953
- Songbirds learn their songs1954-1970
- First protein structure1958
- Telomeres and the Hayflick limit1961-1985
- The genetic code1966
- Endosymbiosis1967