Question

What is one gene - one enzyme hypothesis?

Answer 1

Hint: It is an idea which was proposed by George Wells Beadle in 1941 which is related to the genes and the enzymes or you can say their connection.

Complete answer:
One gene - one enzyme hypothesis was proposed by George Wells Beadle in 1941. This hypothesis is the idea that each gene encodes a single enzyme, it means that a single gene produces a single enzyme.

He demonstrated that in fruit fly one gene produced one enzyme only and that enzyme further controls a single chemical reaction. It is proved that each gene acts as a chemical molecule and each has a particular function.

Sir Archibald Garrod who is a British medical doctor was the first one who said that genes are related to the enzymes and then Beadle confirmed his hypothesis and he used genetic and biochemical studies of the bread mold Neurospora crassa.

Additional information:
In the experiment of bread mold, he first exposed the mold to mutation where he introduced X-rays and after this he cultured it in a growth medium where only the basic nutrients and strain of mold needed to survive. He found that there is an additional requirement of specific amino acids by the mutant strains of mold in order for the medium to grow. Because of this information, the scientists were able to associate mutations in specific genes. Beadle and Tatum won the Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine because of this discovery. In 2004, it was reminisced that these experiments performed by Beadle and Tatum founded the science of 'biochemical genetics'.

Note: This hypothesis is an idea which states that one gene produces one enzyme only and that one enzyme further controls a single chemical reaction. This idea proved that each gene has a particular function and these act as a chemical molecule.