Why a simulation?
In the late 1950's, the nature of the genetic code was highly in doubt. By 1967, the function of the last of the 64 codons had been identified [1]. In between was a barrage of experimental work, the first published of which was a publication by Crick et al (1961) [2] that established the overall nature of the genetic code: Fixed length, triplet or multiple of three, nonoverlapping, and probably highly degenerate. You can read the account in its original [2] as well as in a popular account of the work [3].

While both of the articles expended considerable energy discussing the groundbreaking results and the second article provides insight into the principle behind the experiment, neither one allows the reader to get a good feel for how the experiments were conducted. Without such insight, the experiments recede into the background, just so much magical incantation necessary to produce the results.

The purpose of the simulation described below is to provide you with the opportunity to recreate the experiments whose results are presented in Crick et al (1961). They are necessarily much compressed in time; however, they are not compressed in complexity. Every step is represented.

Contents

Overview of the experiment
Getting to the simulation
How to do the simulation
Description of the MUTAGENIZE function
Description of the DEFINE-STRAIN function
Description of the CROSS function
How many phages to use in experiments
How to save your work
References