This period, between 1961 and 1962, is often
referred to as the coding race because
of the competition between Ochoa's and Nirenberg's
labs. Indeed, the two laboratories completed the base
composition part of the code almost simultaneously.
However, Ochoa’s laboratory stopped working on the problem when they realized how close Nirenberg and his colleagues were to completing the sequencing.
Several scientific instruments proved necessary
in the long years from 1961-1965 while dozens
of people toiled in Nirenberg's lab.
The French press and the multi-plater were only
of instruments that helped save time and solve
problems. In the years when the laboratory was devoted
to sequencing the bases in each
instruments were of vital importance to getting
work done. The innovation of scientists and
laboratory technicians who worked with Nirenberg helped
By 1965, Nirenberg, with help from his NIH
colleagues, had become the first to complete the sequencing of the code. The language of DNA was understood. Once
completely solved, the genetic code could be
expressed in a chart. By looking up the sequence
of nucleotide bases, readers could identify the resulting amino acid. To read the code, select
a letter from the left, right, and top columns,
as U-C-A. This combination represents an mRNA
codon. Draw imaginary horizontal and
vertical lines to connect the letters. They
intersect at the amino acid for which they
example, UCA is the code for serine.