The discovery of RNA splicing in 1977 is widely considered to be a turning point in molecular biology, often viewed as the starting point of the RNA revolution. By showing that many eukaryotic messenger-RNAs are not co-linear with DNA but rather are the products of multiple splicings of non-contiguous segments of a primary transcript of the genome, the discovery led to a new paradigm of genetic regulation. The theory of co-linearity, established in the early 1960s, became so entrenched by the mid- and late-1970s that it prevented the most advanced labs from interpreting accumulating evidence in favor of "splicing." The talk examines whether the stability of the co-linear theory or paradigm was accompanied by faulty foundations such as the assumption that eukaryotes are no different in their life mechanisms than prokaryotes. If so, why some labs (e.g. J. Darnell's at Rockefeller University) could not give up the belief in the strong co-linear theory, thus missing a discovery that of RNA "splicing", or a discovery that is viewed as the third most important one in molecular biology? (i.e. after DNA structure and m-RNA function) while others (e.g. Cold Spring Harbor and MIT) labs were able to abandon the co-linearity theory, perhaps because they were more aware of the faulty foundations of a world view with limited possibility for genomic diversity. The talk further compares and contrasts the leading contender labs in terms of their affinity to stable theories, faulty foundations, new experimental opportunities, social composition, and mentorship by leading scientists.
