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1 The Treasure Under the Right Stone
Abstract
The existence of a group of RNA-containing viruses that could permanently alter the heredity of cells —a situation that was particularly obvious because these viruses made the cells tumorigenic — required either that they make a uniquely stable RNA, one that can equal the permanence of DNA, or that they transmute their information into a stable condition. Howard Temin had long argued that the likely solution was that they encode a DNA able to integrate itself into the cell’s chromosomes, a provirus, but the community of molecular biologists found this hard to accept given the sway of the Central Dogma. Looked at in retrospect, it was a comfortably conservative viewpoint because the chemistry was so easy to imagine. DNA→RNA or RNA→DNA makes very little chemical difference, and...
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/0.1-3