Walter GilbertBorn 21 Mar 1932.American molecular biologist who was awarded a share (with Paul Berg and Frederick Sanger) of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980 for his development of a method for determining the sequence of nucleotide links in the chainlike molecules of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). Everything from bacteria up, he says, with the exception of some viruses, shares some similar DNA. There are many genes, in many species, that create proteins that have the same biochemical function. In some cases, those genes are identical; sometimes they're very similar. Thus, all living things probably trace back to a single ancestral DNA. Whereas many human genes are similar to those in other life forms, each species evolved enough unique genes to distinguish itself. |
