Experimental work on the hypothesis led to the discovery of transfer RNA, a molecule that carries the key to genetic code.
However, the specific code was discovered by Marshall Nirenberg, a non-member, who received Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968 for the discovery.
[7][8] In early 1954, he spent several days at Woods Hole on Cape Cod with Crick, Watson and Sydney Brenner, discussing genetics.
[10] He published the hypothesis in the 13 February 1954 issue of Nature, explaining:It seems to me that such translation procedure can be easily established by considering the 'key-and-lock' relation between various amino-acids, and the rhomb-shaped 'holes' formed by various nucleotides in the deoxyribonucleic acid chain... One can speculate that free amino-acids from the surrounding medium get caught into the 'holes' of deoxyribonucleic acid molecules, and thus unite into the corresponding peptide chains.
"[12] The club thus consisted of 20 eminent scientists, each of whom corresponded to an amino acid, plus four honorary members (S. Brenner, VAL.
This allowed bonding and close friendships to develop among this scientific elite, and it turned out to be a breeding ground for creative ideas.
[16] Sydney Brenner proposed the concept of the codon, the idea that three non-overlapping nucleotides could code for one amino acid.
[22] The typed paper distributed to the members of the RNA Tie Club in January 1955 as "On Degenerate Templates and the Adaptor Hypothesis: A Note for the RNA Tie Club" is described as "one of the most important unpublished articles in the history of science",[23][24] and "the most famous unpublished paper in the annals of molecular biology.
"[24] Watson recalled, "The most famous of these [unpublished] notes, by Francis, in time would totally change the way we thought about protein synthesis.
[2] Six members of the RNA Tie Club became Nobel laureates: Richard Feynman, Melvin Calvin, James Watson, Max Delbruck, Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner.