![]() ![]() The elucidation of the DNA double helix is a marvelous story of scientific detective work. The model provided a surprisingly simple and clear answer to the fundamental question of how the information for life is stored and replicates. The model for the DNA double helix in 1953 by Jim Watson and Francis Crick marked the start of a new era of molecular genetics and personalized medicine. Learning OverviewĬodon, DNA aptamer, DNA chemical structure, DNA origami, DNA polymerase, DNA primase, helicase, hydrogen bond, major and minor groove, nucleoside, nucleotide, Okazaki fragment, phosphodiester bond, purine, pyrimidine, semi-conservative replication, start and stop codon, topoisomerase Introduction The DNA double helix continues to be a source of enormous creativity and inspiration. Springing forward to modern times, we will explore how contemporary bio-engineers use DNA as a building material to create nanoscale devices. The path to the double helix also reveals the complementary roles of modeling (Watson and Crick) and experimentation (Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, and Florence Bell, an unsung heroine whose early discoveries on DNA are featured here). ![]() The quest to understand DNA was marked by mistakes by brilliant people, insights by underdogs, clues that lay forsaken, and flashes of brilliance. What did it take to catapult DNA into the modern era? What seems obvious now was not then. In this Narrative, we will unravel the DNA helix in our minds and go back to a time when the structure was unknown and DNA was not even known to be the molecule of heredity. However, DNA is much more than a molecule to be memorized it is a portal for understanding science and scientific strategy. The double helix has since become the foundation of modern biology and its most iconic image. Francis Crick and Jim Watson did not exaggerate when they proclaimed that they had found "the secret of life" at the Eagle Pub in 1953. The DNA double helix, one of the most influential discoveries in the history of science, revealed how information is stored and replicated in living organisms. At the end of this process, once the DNA is all replicated, the cell actually has twice the amount of DNA that it needs, and the cell can then divide and parcel this DNA into the daughter cell, so that the daughter cell and the parental cell in many case are absolutely genetically identical.Version date September 2019 What’s the Big Deal? Replicating all of the DNA in a single human cell takes several hours of just pure copying time. And replication uses DNA polymerases which are molecules specifically dedicated to just copying DNA. Which is all the more amazing considering that there are almost three billion base pairs of DNA to be copied. And so DNA is a molecule that can be replicated to make almost perfect copies of itself. And during that process of cell division, all of the information in a cell has to be copied, and it has to be copied perfectly. And we start out from a single cell and we end up with trillions of cells. If you think about it, each cell contains all of the DNA you need to make the other cells. DNA replication is probably one of the most amazing tricks that DNA does. ![]()
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