Charles YanofskyBorn 17 Apr 1925.American geneticist who demonstrated the colinearity of gene and protein structures. In the 1960s, Yanofsky began work on the structure of proteins and genes responsible for tryptophan biosynthesis. He used the expression and regulation of these proteins as tools to dissect the inner workings of the cell's genetic apparatus. This work on the nature of mutations that prevent tryptophan biosynthesis produced some of his most significant discoveries. His remarkable exploitation of the E. coli tryptophan operon to work out the biochemical pathway of the synthesis of an amino acid and to elucidate fundamental aspects of transcription and translation, such as missense suppression and polarity, are historic achievements. |
