Most biographical and historical works agree on a common scheme and a few 'founding papers' for the 'discovery' of mRNA. However, a closer scrutiny of these 'founding papers' leads to several unresolved questions with respect to the origin of the notion of mRNA. This paper focuses on the analysis of a set of contributions made by the group of the Rouge-Cloître in order to fill in some of the remaining gaps in the 'standard history'.

The use of informational terms is widespread in molecular and developmental biology. The usage dates back to Weismann. In both protein synthesis and in later development, genes are symbols, in that there is no necessary connection between their form (sequence) and their effects. The sequence of a gene has been determined, by past natural selection, because of the effects it produces. In biology, the use of informational terms implies intentionality, in that both the form of the signal, and the response (...) to it, have evolved by selection. Where an engineer sees design, a biologist sees natural selection. (shrink)

The Pajama (Pardee, Jacob, Monod) experiment provided a breakthrough in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which gene expression is regulated. Today, twenty‐five years later it provides a paradigm for thinking about problems of gene expression, such as growth regulation and differentiation. From this experiment emerged entities such as repressors, regulatory genes, the operon as a group of jointly controlled genes, and messenger RNA.