Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Journal Club
  • Published:

DNA metabolism

A nascent interest amplified

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 24, page 453 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Checking into my hotel the evening before a Baltimore interview for a postdoctoral position in January 1968, I found a preprint authored by my host awaiting me. It described the presence of extrachromosomal copies of the genes for ribosomal RNA in oocytes of the frog Xenopus laevis (Brown and Dawid, 1968). I had not by then, nor have I often since, gotten such an emotional rush upon reading a paper. Here was a case of gene amplification as dramatic as anything that had been reported, and the fact that the amplified genes were extrachromosomal added to the intrigue. This paper was published in April and the same finding, made independently, appeared in the autumn (Gall, 1968).

When I was invited to write a Journal Club, why did this flashback immediately come to me? Less because of the gene amplification story per se, but because the findings explained a cytological phenomenon that had intrigued me: the presence in amphibian oocytes of hundreds to >1,000 nucleoli. For it was the nucleolus, not necessarily ribosomal RNA genes, that had caught my fancy by its striking avidity for RNA dyes.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

Original articles

  • Brown, D. D. & Dawid, I. B. Specific gene amplification in oocytes: oocyte nuclei contain extrachromosomal replicas of the genes for ribosomal RNA. Science 160, 272–280 (1968);

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gall, J. G. Differential synthesis of the genes for ribosomal RNA during amphibian oogenesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 60, 553–560 (1968)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    Thoru Pederson

Authors
  1. Thoru Pederson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thoru Pederson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Pederson, T. A nascent interest amplified. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 24, 453 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-023-00603-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-023-00603-0

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing