AMBER - OCHRE - OPAL EXPLANATION PLEASE!!!

[John Woods]

sre at al.cam.ac.uk (Sean Eddy) writes:

-In article <2635.2c20d7de at mbcl.rutgers.edu> mb_nelson at mbcl.rutgers.edu writes:

-  >does anybody know why the names amber, ochre, and opal were given to the
-  >stop codons?? I read in a text book that it was because of some 
-  >laboratory joke but the book didn't say what the joke was.  

-The story told in disreputable bars by bacteriophage T4 groups was that
-"Amber" was the name of Harris Bernstein's grandmother. The other stop
-codons were named just as colors.

I thought Bernstein actually translated as `Amber'.  But I could be
-- 
"
Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit (Virgil)
[approx] Tr: The time may come when we will look back on these days and laugh
"