Pierrel Jérôme
Laboratoire Épistémê (EA 2971), Bordeaux University, 40 rue Lamartine, 33405 Talence, France.
J Hist Biol. 2012 Spring;45(1):109-38. doi: 10.1007/s10739-010-9267-z.
The importance of viruses as model organisms is well-established in molecular biology and Max Delbrück's phage group set standards in the DNA phage field. In this paper, I argue that RNA phages, discovered in the 1960s, were also instrumental in the making of molecular biology. As part of experimental systems, RNA phages stood for messenger RNA (mRNA), genes and genome. RNA was thought to mediate information transfers between DNA and proteins. Furthermore, RNA was more manageable at the bench than DNA due to the availability of specific RNases, enzymes used as chemical tools to analyse RNA. Finally, RNA phages provided scientists with a pure source of mRNA to investigate the genetic code, genes and even a genome sequence. This paper focuses on Walter Fiers' laboratory at Ghent University (Belgium) and their work on the RNA phage MS2. When setting up his Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Fiers planned a comprehensive study of the virus with a strong emphasis on the issue of structure. In his lab, RNA sequencing, now a little-known technique, evolved gradually from a means to solve the genetic code, to a tool for completing the first genome sequence. Thus, I follow the research pathway of Fiers and his 'RNA phage lab' with their evolving experimental system from 1960 to the late 1970s. This study illuminates two decisive shifts in post-war biology: the emergence of molecular biology as a discipline in the 1960s in Europe and of genomics in the 1990s.
病毒作为模式生物在分子生物学中的重要性已得到充分确立，马克斯·德尔布吕克的噬菌体小组在DNA噬菌体领域设定了标准。在本文中，我认为20世纪60年代发现的RNA噬菌体在分子生物学的形成过程中也发挥了重要作用。作为实验系统的一部分，RNA噬菌体代表信使RNA（mRNA）、基因和基因组。RNA被认为介导了DNA和蛋白质之间的信息传递。此外，由于存在特定的核糖核酸酶（用作分析RNA的化学工具的酶），RNA在实验台上比DNA更易于操作。最后，RNA噬菌体为科学家提供了一种纯mRNA来源，用于研究遗传密码、基因乃至基因组序列。本文重点关注比利时根特大学沃尔特·菲尔斯的实验室及其对RNA噬菌体MS2的研究工作。在建立他的分子生物学实验室时，菲尔斯计划对该病毒进行全面研究，重点是结构问题。在他的实验室里，RNA测序这一如今鲜为人知的技术逐渐从一种解决遗传密码的手段演变为完成首个基因组序列的工具。因此，我沿着菲尔斯及其“RNA噬菌体实验室”从1960年到20世纪70年代末不断发展的实验系统的研究路径进行阐述。这项研究揭示了战后生物学的两个决定性转变：20世纪60年代分子生物学在欧洲作为一门学科的兴起以及20世纪90年代基因组学的兴起。
