title: The operon as paradigm: normal science and the beginning of biological complexity.
abstract: The papers from the Jacob and Monod groups that presented the operon model and repressor control of gene expression provided a paradigm that opened up the field of gene regulation. Following the set of papers published between 1958 and 1961, there ensued almost immediately a period of "normal science" as Thomas Kuhn has defined it. Most researchers applied the repressor model to their own systems. I suggest a number of factors that were responsible for the rapid acceptance of the Jacob-Monod model and inhibited suggestions for alternative mechanisms of regulation. Nevertheless, I argue that this adherence to the paradigm, including specifically control by repressors, may well have been necessary for the field to progress. Ultimately, the evolution of this field of study was to reveal the unexpected complexity to genetic regulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. jbeckwith@hms.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beckwith
mesh_terms: D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends*; D009876:Operon; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D012097:Repressor Proteins