The article deals with those immunological concepts from the first half of the 20th century that influenced the terminology of molecular genetics that was to come. They comprise mainly explanations of the contact between antibodies and antigens and clarifications of the fact that organisms are able to produce a huge variety of specific antibodies. This paper focuses on the term “template,” which geneticists adopted from immunology. The term “template” went through an appreciable semantic change, which came between the 1930s and the 1950s. This change documents the earliest development of molecular genetics.
antibody; antigene; template; specificity; proteosynthesis; geneaction
ISSN 0300-4414 (print)
ISSN 2788-3485 (online)
founded 1968
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