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Sir Archibald Garrod's Conception of Chemical Individuality: A Modern Appreciation

1970; Massachusetts Medical Society; Volume: 282; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1056/nejm197001082820205

1533-4406

Barton Childs,

Genomics and Rare Diseases

Abstract Discussions of the inborn errors of metabolism are usually prefaced by a reference to the original descriptions of these genetic aberrations by Sir Archibald Garrod. It is less well known that in reflecting on the inborn errors, Garrod was led to formulate ideas about what he called chemical individuality. He suggested that all human differences were chemical, taking their origin from variations in the amino acid composition of the cellular proteins, and evolutionary changes leading to interspecific differences could be explained in the same way. These molecular differences between people and species, he thought, must be a reflection of variations in the quality of the molecules of the chromosomes. Garrod's idea of the gene-enzyme relation expressed in his concept of the inborn errors was almost ignored for about 40 years. That he foreshadowed many other modern ideas of molecular biology is not generally known today.