MONO (Monod), Jacques

February 9, 1910, Mr.. - May 31, 1976
. The French biologist Jacques Lucien Monod was born in Paris in the family of Charlotte Todd (McGregor) Mono, an American of Scottish descent, and Lucien Monod, an artist and intellectual, whose ancestors were Swiss Protestants, the Huguenots
. When he was 7 years old, the family moved to Cannes, and throughout their life M. considered himself a native of southern France, rather than Parisian.
In adolescence M. studied at the Cannes Lyceum, his mentor was Dor de la Susher, who taught humanities, and later the founder and curator of the museum Antibskogo. After graduating from the Lyceum in 1928. M. was enrolled at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Paris (Sorbonne). Later, he explains the choice of their way of life influenced by his father: "He nursed the positivist belief in the simultaneous progress of science and society. And this is it, lover of books of Darwin, I am obliged to his early interest in biology '. M. found, however, that she biology, which was read at the university, for several decades behind the level of modern science, so he decided to make sure to get a more fundamental education. Microbiology and Microbial food M. mastered under the guidance of Andre Lviv, with whom he established lifelong friendships. Biochemical genetics, he studied with Boris Ephrussi, and Louis Rapkin taught him consciousness of the necessity of molecular-biological approach in the analysis of unsolved mysteries of the living cell. In 1931, Mr.. M. received a bachelor's degree at the Sorbonne and Sciences decided to continue their education.
The following year, M. he became an assistant in the laboratory evolution of organic life at the Sorbonne in 1934. joined zoologichesuyu laboratory of the Sorbonne and as assistant, and a year later was appointed assistant professor of zoology. In the summer he joined the expedition of scientists en route to Greenland from France with a sailing vessel 'Pourquoi paN'. Two years later, M. would again go to Greenland on board the same ship, but instead sailed with Ephrussi in the United States, receiving a cash grant to the Rockefeller Foundation. In the summer the ship "Pourquoi paN 'and all who were on board, disappeared without trace.
In 1936 ... 1937. While in the U.S., M. Ephrussi and genetics involved in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) under the leadership of Thomas Hunt Morgan at Caltech. M. was struck by the high quality of research and the ease with which members of the department headed by Morgan exchanged ideas and results. This situation contrasted sharply with the much more rigid atmosphere that prevailed in scientific circles at the Sorbonne. Returning to Paris, M. within a few months he worked in the laboratory Ephrussi at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Biology, engaged in biochemical genetics, fruit fly, and then returned to his duties at the Sorbonne.
. Through experiments with E. coli (Escherichia coli), M
. found that cellular energy is used primarily for the processes of biosynthesis, but not for maintenance of cell structures. He observed two different types of growth curves in the colonies E. coli, depending on which of two different carbohydrate was given as a power. Lvov suggested that M. discovered the phenomenon of adaptation of enzymes in which the first activated and synthesized by one enzyme, and the second is suppressed, and then vice versa. 'Since that day in December 1940. all my scientific work was connected with the study of enzyme adaptation '- will write later M.
The next year, M. received his Ph.D. from the Sorbonne with a thesis on the basis of their research. However, the head of the laboratory showed no interest in his work, and M. continued his experiments at the Pasteur Institute. At the same time, he actively participated in the resistance movement, was arrested by the Gestapo, but managed to escape. After the liberation of France received a number of military awards. As a member of staff under General de Lattre de Tassigny, he met with officers of the U.S. military medical service, who introduced him to the latest publications in scientific periodicals. He caught the eye of two articles, which described the results of experiments conducted in the United States during the war. In one of them, written by Max Delbrц?ck and Salvador Luria, stated that the bacteria inherent spontaneous genetic mutation. 'I think that I have never read a scientific paper with such enthusiasm - later recalled MA - this was my first introduction to the genetics of bacteria'. In another article dezok-siribonukleinovaya acid (DNA) was determined as the cause of the transformation of bacteria. These discoveries have helped M. further work on DNA and RNA.
After the liberation of Paris, found his family, M. briefly returned to the Sorbonne and began to work alone in the zoological laboratory. In 1945, Mr.. Andre Lviv offered him a job managing laboratory in the department of physiology of microbes of the Pasteur Institute - one of the teaching and research units in the National Center for Scientific Research. During the next two decades, M. and his colleagues were engaged in molecular biological aspects of bacterial genetics and enzymology of bacterial cells. In 1954, Mr.. He became the head of the department of cellular biochemistry.
M. and other researchers of the Pasteur Institute have developed an experimental system for analysis of biochemical genetics of cell. They found a mutant strain of E. coli, containing beta-galactosidase - an adaptive enzyme, activated in the presence of lactose in the nutrient solution and cause its decomposition into constituent carbohydrates. The scientific team, led by Moscow, tried to determine what causes the cell to start the enzyme system similar to that described above. Been formulated two theories:
. enzyme is inhibited by the environment, and its induction (activation) is a consequence of removing this inhibition;
. inhibited the gene, and induction is related to deingibirovaniem gene directing the synthesis of specific enzyme
. M. favored the latter explanation.
The designated head of the Department of Cell Biology, Pasteur Institute in 1953, M. began to work with Franцїois Jacob. This happened in the late 50's., And the Commonwealth of the two scientists was, according to Francis Crick, 'a great co-operation'. M. and Jacob postulated and proved the existence of messenger RNA - the RNA molecules carrying the genetic information from DNA of the cell nucleus to the cytoplasm. Living cells contain three types of RNA: information, transportation (soluble) and ribosomal. Messenger RNA transmits the genetic code of the ribosomes in the cytoplasm. Transport RNA carries the amino acids from the cytoplasm to the ribosomes, after which the three types of RNA interact, synthesizing proteins and enzymes in the cell ribosomes.
In another study, M. and Jacob was shown that DNA is organized into sets of genes, called operon. Operon consists of a structural gene, directing and controlling the synthesis of specific cellular enzyme, and the regulatory gene, or operator. Normally, the structural gene is inhibited, or suppressed, regulatory gene. When the enzymes are activated, regulatory gene suppressed cell protein called a repressor protein, thereby allowing the structural gene to synthesize messenger RNA. This system of biochemical genetics allows the cell to adapt to new environmental conditions (eg, to different types of carbohydrates in the nutrient medium). M. and his colleagues have also shown that similar systems are present in the bacteriophage - viruses that infect bacterial cells.
M. Jacob and Lviv shared the Nobel Prize 1965. in Physiology or Medicine "for discoveries concerning the genetic control of synthesis of enzymes and virus'. Their works, said in a welcome speech Sven Gard of the Karolinska Institute, 'opened a research area, which in the full sense of the word can be called molecular biology'.
In 1959, Mr.. M. was promoted to professor of chemistry at the Sorbonne, metabolism, and in 1967. became a professor at the College de France. In 1971, Mr.. published his book 'Chance and necessity' ( 'Chance and Necessity'), illuminating the nature of cellular biochemical processes, and expresses the view that the origin of life and evolution is the result of chance. In the same year, M. became director of the Pasteur Institute, and, abandoning research, engaged in the reorganization and modernization of laboratory equipment.
In 1938. M. married dressed Bruhl, an archaeologist and orientalist, who later became curator of the Musц?e Guimet in Paris, the couple were born twin sons. An avid music lover, once to think seriously about a career conductor, M. played the cello in a quartet and for many years was the head of Bach Choir. Not only musically, but also a sports prodigy, he was interested in mountaineering in the Alps and sailing.
After his wife died in 1972. M. ill. Four years later, feeling the inevitable approach of death, he returned to the south of France. His last days were held in Cannes, where he died at the age of 66. Last words M. were: 'Je cherche a comprendre' ( 'I silyus understand').
'M. attractive for their intelligence, clarity of thought, insight, and the apparent breadth and depth of interest - said of him, Francis Crick. - Always brave, he combined the gallant manner and sarcastic speech, with deep moral principles prevailing in the relationship of those things which he considered fundamental '. According to Lvov, M. was' superb experimentalist. Strictness and accuracy of the findings provided impeccable deductive logic. Tendency to a critical analysis has never hampered the work of his imagination and originality of thinking.
During the life of M. been awarded many prizes, t.ch. Legion of Honor and medals 'Bronze Star', which he received from the French government for military service; Montiona Prize in Physiology (1955) and the Charles Leopold Mayer Prize of the French Academy of Sciences (1962). He was an honorary doctor of two universities: Chicago and Rockefeller.