Discovery of RNA polymerase
Descubrimiento de la ARN polimerasa
- Date
- 1960 · confidence high
- Place
- St. Louis, Missouri, United States
- Credited to
- Audrey Stevens, Sam Weiss and Jerard Hurwitz (independent laboratories)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Three laboratories independently identified the enzyme RNA polymerase, which copies DNA into messenger RNA; the finding corrected the earlier mistaken attribution of that function to polynucleotide phosphorylase, for which Severo Ochoa had received the 1959 Nobel Prize.
Ochoa's claimed priority was corrected once it was found he had characterised a different enzyme.
What it led to
- Mechanistic understanding of genetic transcription
- A key tool for molecular biology and genetic engineering