Receptors and Gene Expression It is now more than three years since the last Meadow Brook Conference on Hormones, and a great deal has happened in the meantime. We have become comfortable with the totally unanticipated fact that the coding sequences of genes are in discontinuous arrangements and that the RNA transcribed from them must be extensively processed to form messenger RNA. We have also learned about the strategy of "mixing and matching" of genetic segments so that a small amount of DNA can go a long way in producing a huge variety of different proteins, as in the immunoglobulin...

Within the last two decades endocrinological research has taken a definite tum toward biochemistry and molecular biology. This has resulted in a new discipline called' 'molecular endocrinology. " Studies on the mechanism of hormone action have continued to make headlines with fundamental discov eries in receptor action and gene regulation. Recently the insect endocrino logists have also begun to explore the molecular mechanism of steroid hor mone action taking advantage of the vast number of Drosophila mutants, the library of Drosophila gene, and several well-characterized cell-lines. The...