| 释义 |
molecular biology
[f. molecular a. + biology.]
Biology at the molecular level, esp. that branch of biology which is concerned with the formation, organization, and activity of macromolecules essential to life (i.e. nucleic acids, proteins, etc.).
1950Harvey Lectures XLVI. 3 The name ‘molecular biology’ seems to be passing now into fairly common use... It implies..an approach from the viewpoint of the so-called basic sciences with the leading idea of searching below the large-scale manifestations of classical biology for the corresponding molecular plan. It is concerned particularly with the forms of biological molecules, and with the evolution, exploitation and ramification of those forms in the ascent to higher and higher levels of organization. 1963Listener 17 Jan. 121/2 The newest and most refined field of genetics, which deals with definite chemical substances and is known as molecular biology. 1964G. H. Haggis et al. Introd. Molecular Biol. p. x, We may say that molecular biology is primarily concerned with the structure of proteins, nucleic acids and other large biological molecules, and with the detailed structure of myofilaments, chromosomes, ribosomes, membranes and other cell components. But the study of structure cannot be divorced from the study of function. 1970Nature 4 July 13/1 The synthesis of genes de novo has been an aim of molecular biology since its very inception. 1974Daily Tel. 3 Sept. 6 Molecular biology and genetic engineering have reached the stage where results of research could plunge the world into far deeper problems that those raised by the atom bomb. |