Khorana was awarded Nobel Prize for:

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 3: Chemical synthesis of gene.
Har Gobind Khorana, along with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 for their groundbreaking work on the interpretation of the genetic code and its role in protein synthesis. Khorana's specific contribution was the chemical synthesis of gene sequences, demonstrating how the order of nucleotides in DNA dictates the amino acid sequence in proteins. This monumental achievement provided crucial insights into how genetic information is encoded and expressed, laying the foundation for modern molecular biology and genetic engineering.

The incorrect option is 1: Discovering DNA.
The discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA is attributed to James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin, who performed their significant work in the 1950s, well before Khorana's Nobel Prize. While DNA is central to genetics, Khorana's Nobel was for his work on understanding and synthesizing gene sequences, not the initial discovery of DNA itself.

The incorrect option is 2: Discovering RNA.
While RNA is a crucial molecule in gene expression, playing roles as messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and ribosomal RNA (rRNA), the discovery of RNA as a distinct nucleic acid pre-dates Khorana's Nobel Prize. His research focused on deciphering the genetic code and synthesizing gene segments, which involved understanding how RNA translates genetic information, but he was not credited with its discovery.

The incorrect option is 4: Discovering DNA polymerase.
DNA polymerase is an enzyme essential for DNA replication and repair. Arthur Kornberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1959 for his discovery of DNA polymerase. Khorana's work, while deeply related to nucleic acids, centered on the synthesis of genetic material and the interpretation of the genetic code, not the discovery of the enzymes involved in DNA replication.