An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

MIZUTANI, Satoshi

2 entries
  • 2660.23

RNA-dependent DNA polymerase in virions of Rous sarcoma virus.

Nature (Lond.), 226, 1211-13, 1970.

Discovery of reverse transcriptase. "In 1969, Temin and a postdoctoral fellow, Satoshi Mizutani, began searching for the enzyme that was responsible for the phenomenon of viral RNA being transferred into proviral DNA.[5] Later that year, Temin showed that certain tumor viruses carried the enzymatic ability to reverse the flow of information from RNA back to DNA using reverse transcriptase. Reverse transcriptase was also independently and simultaneously discovered in association with the murine leukemia virus by David Baltimore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[10] In 1975, Baltimore and Temin shared the Nobel Prize of Physiology or Medicine.[11] Both scientists completed their initial work with RNA-dependent DNA polymerase with the Rous sarcoma virus." (Wikipedia article on Howard Martin Temin, accessed 3-2020).



Subjects: BIOLOGY › MOLECULAR BIOLOGY › Protein Synthesis, ONCOLOGY & CANCER, VIROLOGY › Molecular Virology, VIROLOGY › VIRUSES (by Family) › Retroviridae › Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV)
  • 13959

RNA-dependent DNA polymerase virions of Rous sarcoma virus.

Nature, 226, 1211-1213, 1970.

For his discovery of reverse transcriptase, in 1975 Temin shared the 1975 Nobel Prize with Renato Dulbecco and David Baltimore.

While studying the Rous sarcoma virus Temin began to refer to the genetic material that the virus introduced to the cells, the "provirus". Using the antibiotic, actinomycin D, which inhibits the expression of DNA, he determined that the provirus was DNA or was located on the cell's DNA. These results implied that the infecting Rous sarcoma virus was somehow generating complementary double-stranded DNA. Temin's description of how tumor viruses act on the genetic material of the cell through reverse transcription was revolutionary. This upset the widely held belief at the time of a popularized version of the "Central Dogma" of molecular biology posited by Nobel laureate Francis Crick, one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, with James Watson and Rosalind Franklin. Crick claimed only that sequence information cannot flow out of protein into DNA or RNA, but he was commonly interpreted as saying that information flows exclusively from DNA to RNA to protein. Many highly respected scientists disregarded Temin's work and declared it impossible. Despite the lack of support from the scientific community, Temin continued to search for evidence to support his idea. In 1969, Temin and a postdoctoral fellow, Satoshi Mizutani, began searching for the enzyme that was responsible for the phenomenon of viral RNA being transferred into proviral DNA. Later that year, Temin showed that certain tumor viruses carried the enzymatic ability to reverse the flow of information from RNA back to DNA using reverse transcriptase.



Subjects: BIOLOGY › MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, ONCOLOGY & CANCER, VIROLOGY › VIRUSES (by Family) › Retroviridae › Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV)