Word: rabbiting
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...M.I.T., had synthesized a yeast gene, the simplest gene yet made. Already aware of the sequence of the 77 "code letters," or nucleotides, in the DNA of the gene, Khorana painstakingly "assembled" the letters one at a tune in the proper order to produce a synthetic unit. The rabbit gene is at least eight times as large, containing about 650 nucleotides strung together in a sequence that scientists have not yet completely determined. Clearly the Harvard group could not follow Khorana's route...
...Howard Temin and David Baltimore (TIME, July 20, 1970), who had discovered an enzyme, or chemical catalyst, capable of reversing the normal genetic process in which DNA orders the production of "messenger" molecule RNA. Their enzyme permits RNA to manufacture the master molecule DNA. The Harvard team broke down rabbit hemoglobin and isolated its RNA. They then mixed this RNA with the Temin-Baltimore enzyme in a rich nutrient broth. They were thus able to trick the RNA into making the DNA from which it itself had been produced...
Kafatos believes that the artificial gene could be used to make rabbit hemoglobin. But his team is more interested in learning why the sequence of nucleotides in this gene works to order the production of hemoglobin in blood cells but not in other cells. That knowledge would bring scientists still closer to learning the secret of life...
Parents are back in style in three books of poems for the young. John Lawrence's Rabbit & Pork: Rhyming Talk (Crowell; $6.95) revives the old cockney custom of jingling euphemisms: "Johnny Homer" to mean corner. By means of fine-lined wood engravings, Lawrence invests each miniverse with whimsy and bite (from "Inky Smudge": Judge, to "Noah's Ark": Park); his pageant of animals educates almost as much as it amuses. Perhaps the most diverting beast of the season is the dragon of Magic in the Mist (Atheneum; $4.95). Margaret Mary Kimmel's happy reptile-illustrated by Trina...
...gene synthesized was equivalent to the gene in rabbits that produces hemoglobin, Kafatos said. He added, though, that many genes can be produced in this manner and that the rabbit gene had been selected because it is a common subject of research...