| RefNo | EC/1973/27 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XIX, 101 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Tata, Jamshed Rustom: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Description | Citation typed. Letter attached to certificate. |
| Citation | Building on a thorough experience of thyroid biochemistry, Tata initiated a line of research into the mechanism of action of thyroxine which has deeply influenced current conceptions of how hormones act on cells. When he began, the prevailing view was thyroxine raised the basal metabolic rate by a direct action on mitochondria, probably by uncoupling respiration and oxidative phosphorylation. Tata investigated the action of thyroxine at physiological dose levels in thyroidectomized animals, and demonstrated the occurrence of successively, a stimulation of RNA synthesis, stimulation of protein synthesis, and elevation of BMR. Actinomycin and puromycin blocked the action of thyroxine. Tata found that hormones other than thyroxine (e.g. testosterone and growth hormone) affect RNA turnover, but their effects are additive and are therefore presumable exercised separately in the cell. These findings accord with the general conception that hormones have a direct and specific effect on information transfer between gene and the machinery of protein synthesis. Tata gas applied his knowledge to, inter alia, a study of how thyroid hormones initiate tail resorption in amphibian metamorphosis, finding that it does not merely activate hydrolytic enzymes already present in the tail but that it actually induces the synthesis of new enzymes involved in resorption. |
| AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA3902 | Tata; Jamshed Rustom (1930 - 2020) | 1930 - 2020 |