Critical Analysis of Classical Papers

1. Studies on the chemical nature of the substance inducing transformation of Pneumococcal types: Induction of transformation by a deoxyribonucleic acid fraction isolated from Pneumococcus type III. Avery OT, Macleod CM, McCarty M.; J Exp Med. 1944 Feb 1; 79(2):137-58.

Note: This paper demonstrates that DNA is the transforming Principle originally described by Fredrick Griffith.

2. Independent functions of viral protein and nucleic acid in growth of bacteriophage. Hershey AD and Chase M.; J Gen Physiol. 1952 May; 36(1):39-56.

Note: Note: This paper demonstrates that DNA, and not protein, component of phage enter bacterial cells.

3. Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Watson JD and Crick FH; Nature. 1953 Apr 25; 171(4356):737-8

Note: In this one page paper Watson and Crick first described the structure of DNA double helix Study help - Watson_Crick_Nature_1953_annotated

4. Transposable mating type genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. James Hicks, Jeffrey N. Strathern & Amar J.S. Klar; Nature 282, 478-483, 1979

Note: This paper provided evidence for ‘cassette hypothesis’ of yeast mating type switches i.e. interconversion of mating types in yeast (S. cerevisiae) occurs by DNA rearrangement.

5. Messelson & Stahl experiment demonstrating semi-conservative replication of DNA. Meselson M and Stahl FW; Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1958 Jul 15; 44(7):671-82

Note: The experiment demonstrating semi-conservative mode of DNA replication is referred to as "the most beautiful experiment in biology"

6. In vivo alteration of telomere sequences and senescence caused by mutated Tetrahymena telomerase RNAs. Guo-Liang Yu, John D. Bradley, Laura D. Attardi & Elizabeth H. Blackburn; Nature 344, 126-132, 1990

Note: This paper demonstrates that the telomerase contains the template for telomere synthesis

1. A protein-conducting channel in the endoplasmic reticulum Simon SM AND Blobel G.; Cell. 1991 May 3; 65(3):371-80

Note: This paper demonstrates the existence of a protein conducting channel Study help - A brief history of Signal Hypothesis

2. Identification of 23 complementation groups required for post-translational events in the yeast secretory pathway. Novick P, Field C, Schekman R.; Cell. 1980 Aug; 21(1):205-15

Note: In this ground breaking paper Randy Schekman's group used a mutagenesis screen for fast sedimenting yeast mutants to identify genes involved in cell secretion

3. A yeast mutant defective at an early stage in import of secretory protein precursors into the endoplasmic reticulum. Deshaies RJ and Schekman R.; J Cell Biol. 1987 Aug; 105(2):633-45

Note: Using another yeast mutation screen Schekman lab identifies Sec61, a component of ER protein Conducting Channel (PCC)

4. Reconstitution of the Transport of Protein between Successive Compartments of the Golgi. Balch WE, Dunphy WG, Braell WA, Rothman JE.; Cell. 1984 Dec; 39(2 Pt 1):405-16

Note: This paper describes setting up of an in vitro reconstituted system for transport between Golgi stacks which eventually paved the way for identification of most of the molecular players involved in these steps including NSF, SNAP etc.

5. A complete immunoglobulin gene is created by somatic recombination. Brack C, Hirama M, Lenhard-Schuller R, Tonegawa S.; Cell. 1978 Sep; 15(1):1-14

Note: This study demonstrates DNA level molecular details of somatic rearrangement of immunoglobulin gene sequences leading to the generation of functionally competent antibody generating gene following recombination.

6. A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: a molecular basis for odor recognition. Buck L and Axel R; Cell. 1991 Apr 5; 65(1):175-87

Note: This paper suggests that different chemical odorants associate with different cell-specific expression of a transmembrane receptor in Drosophila olfactory epithelium where a large family of odorat receptors is expressed.

7. Kinesin walks hand-over-hand. Yildiz A, Tomishige M, Vale RD, Selvin PR.; Science. 2004 Jan 30; 303(5658):676-8

Note: This paper shows that kinesin motor works as a two-headed dimeric motor walking hand-over-hand rather than like an inchworm on microtubule tract using the energy of ATP hydrolysis

1. Mutations affecting segment number and polarity in Drosophila. Christiane Nusslein-Volhard and Eric Weischaus; Nature 287, 795-801, 1980

Note: This single mutagenesis screen identified majority of the developmentally important genes not only in flies but in other metazoans as well.

2. Information for the dorsal--ventral pattern of the Drosophila embryo is stored as maternal mRNA. Anderson KV and Nüsslein-Volhard C; Nature. 1984 Sep 20-26; 311(5983):223-7

Note: This landmark paper demonstrated that early dorsal-ventral pattern information is stored as maternal mRNA in flies and devised the method of identifying genes encoding such genes

3. Hedgehog signalling in the mouse requires intraflagellar transport proteins. Huangfu D, Liu A, Rakeman AS, Murcia NS, Niswander L, Anderson KV; Nature. 2003 Nov 6; 426(6962):83-7

Note: One of the architects of original fly mutagenesis screens conducted a mouse mutagenes screen which identified a gene Kif3a as a major component of hedgehog signaling pathway. Eventually this discovery revolutionizes our understanding of mechanisms of action of signaling pathways by demonstrating central role of cillia in it.

Suggested Reference paper - Design and execution of an embryonic lethal mutation screen in mouse.