Crick

Watson s vivid and outspoken account of how he and Crick discovered the structure of DNA (and won themselves a Nobel Prize) - one of the greatest scientific achievements of the century. 

Watson J D and Crick F H C 1953 A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid Nature 171 737-8... 

Watson and Crick shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiol ogy or medicine with Maurice Wilkins who with Rosalind Franklin was responsible for the X ray crystallographic work... 

FIGURE 28 2 Molecular modeling—1953 style James Watson (left) and Francis Crick (right) with their DNA model A Barrington Brown/Science Source Photo Researchers Inc... 

Watson and Crick published their work in a pa per entitled A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid in the British journal A/ature on April 25 1953 In addition to being one of the most important pa pers of the twentieth century it is also remembered for one brief sentence appearing near the end... 

True to their word Watson and Crick followed up their April 25 paper with another on May 30 This second paper Genetical Implications of the Struc ture of Deoxyribonucleic Acid outlines a mechanism for DNA replication that is still accepted as essentially correct... 

The structure proposed by Watson and Crick was modeled to fit crystallographic data obtained on a sample of the most common form of DNA called B DNA Other forms include A DNA which is similar to but more compact than B DNA and Z DNA which IS a left handed double helix... 

Primary and Secondary Structure. The DNA double helix was first identified by Watson and Crick in 1953 (4). Not only was the Watson-Crick model consistent with the known physical and chemical properties of DNA, but it also suggested how genetic information could be organized and rephcated, thus providing a foundation for modem molecular biology. 

Fig. 1. Elements of DNA stmcture (a) a deoxypolynucleotiide chain, which reads d(ACTG) from 3 — 5 or d(GTCA) from 3 — 5 and (b) and (c) the Watson-Crick purine—pyriinidine base pairs. A—T and G—C, respectively, where — represents attachment to the deoxyribose.

Fig. 6. Elements of RNA stmcture (a) uracil (b) a Watson-Crick A—U base pair and (c) a polynucleotide chain which reads from 5 — 3 ACUG, and...

Fig. 8. Non-Watson-Crick base pairs occurring in double-stranded RNA where — represents the site of attachment to the sugar (a) A—U reverse-Watson-Crick (b) G—C reverse-Watson-Crick (c) A—U Hoogsteen (d) A—U reverse-Hoogsteen (e) G—U wobble and (f) G—U reverse-wobble.

---