1 History for Canonical and Non-Canonical Structures of Nucleic Acids
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Discovery of DNA Structure and Function: Watson and Crick By: Leslie A
01/08/2018 Discovery of DNA Double Helix: Watson and Crick | Learn Science at Scitable NUCLEIC ACID STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION | Lead Editor: Bob Moss Discovery of DNA Structure and Function: Watson and Crick By: Leslie A. Pray, Ph.D. © 2008 Nature Education Citation: Pray, L. (2008) Discovery of DNA structure and function: Watson and Crick. Nature Education 1(1):100 The landmark ideas of Watson and Crick relied heavily on the work of other scientists. What did the duo actually discover? Aa Aa Aa Many people believe that American biologist James Watson and English physicist Francis Crick discovered DNA in the 1950s. In reality, this is not the case. Rather, DNA was first identified in the late 1860s by Swiss chemist Friedrich Miescher. Then, in the decades following Miescher's discovery, other scientists--notably, Phoebus Levene and Erwin Chargaff--carried out a series of research efforts that revealed additional details about the DNA molecule, including its primary chemical components and the ways in which they joined with one another. Without the scientific foundation provided by these pioneers, Watson and Crick may never have reached their groundbreaking conclusion of 1953: that the DNA molecule exists in the form of a three-dimensional double helix. The First Piece of the Puzzle: Miescher Discovers DNA Although few people realize it, 1869 was a landmark year in genetic research, because it was the year in which Swiss physiological chemist Friedrich Miescher first identified what he called "nuclein" inside the nuclei of human white blood cells. (The term "nuclein" was later changed to "nucleic acid" and eventually to "deoxyribonucleic acid," or "DNA.") Miescher's plan was to isolate and characterize not the nuclein (which nobody at that time realized existed) but instead the protein components of leukocytes (white blood cells). -
Biochemistrystanford00kornrich.Pdf
University of California Berkeley Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Program in the History of the Biosciences and Biotechnology Arthur Kornberg, M.D. BIOCHEMISTRY AT STANFORD, BIOTECHNOLOGY AT DNAX With an Introduction by Joshua Lederberg Interviews Conducted by Sally Smith Hughes, Ph.D. in 1997 Copyright 1998 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the Nation. Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well- informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is indexed, bound with photographs and illustrative materials, and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ************************************ All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Arthur Kornberg, M.D., dated June 18, 1997. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. -
DNA: the Timeline and Evidence of Discovery
1/19/2017 DNA: The Timeline and Evidence of Discovery Interactive Click and Learn (Ann Brokaw Rocky River High School) Introduction For almost a century, many scientists paved the way to the ultimate discovery of DNA and its double helix structure. Without the work of these pioneering scientists, Watson and Crick may never have made their ground-breaking double helix model, published in 1953. The knowledge of how genetic material is stored and copied in this molecule gave rise to a new way of looking at and manipulating biological processes, called molecular biology. The breakthrough changed the face of biology and our lives forever. Watch The Double Helix short film (approximately 15 minutes) – hyperlinked here. 1 1/19/2017 1865 The Garden Pea 1865 The Garden Pea In 1865, Gregor Mendel established the foundation of genetics by unraveling the basic principles of heredity, though his work would not be recognized as “revolutionary” until after his death. By studying the common garden pea plant, Mendel demonstrated the inheritance of “discrete units” and introduced the idea that the inheritance of these units from generation to generation follows particular patterns. These patterns are now referred to as the “Laws of Mendelian Inheritance.” 2 1/19/2017 1869 The Isolation of “Nuclein” 1869 Isolated Nuclein Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss researcher, noticed an unknown precipitate in his work with white blood cells. Upon isolating the material, he noted that it resisted protein-digesting enzymes. Why is it important that the material was not digested by the enzymes? Further work led him to the discovery that the substance contained carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and large amounts of phosphorus with no sulfur. -
Accurate Energies of Hydrogen Bonded Nucleic Acid Base Pairs and Triplets in Trna Tertiary Interactions Romina Oliva1,2,*, Luigi Cavallo3 and Anna Tramontano2
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by PubMed Central Nucleic Acids Research, 2006, Vol. 34, No. 3 865–879 doi:10.1093/nar/gkj491 Accurate energies of hydrogen bonded nucleic acid base pairs and triplets in tRNA tertiary interactions Romina Oliva1,2,*, Luigi Cavallo3 and Anna Tramontano2 1Centro Linceo Interdisciplinare ‘Beniamino Segre’, Accademia dei Lincei, I-00165 Rome, Italy, 2Dipartimento di Scienze Biochimiche ‘A. Rossi Fanelli’, Universita` di Roma ‘La Sapienza’, I-00185 Rome, Italy and 3Dipartimento di Chimica, Universita` di Salerno, Via Salvador Allende, Baronissi (SA), I-84081, Italy Received December 4, 2005; Revised and Accepted January 19, 2006 ABSTRACT intercalated A58–G18–A/G57–G19 purine bases. All these interactions are highly conserved in cytosolic tRNAs, indic- Tertiary interactions are crucial in maintaining the ating their importance for the tRNA function. Available tRNA structure and functionality. We used a com- experimental data also support the functional importance of bined sequence analysis and quantum mechanics such a region. Mutants of the Escherichia coli tRNAAla(CUA) approach to calculate accurate energies of the most obtained by random mutagenesis and having at least one of frequent tRNA tertiary base pairing interactions. Our the above-mentioned interactions disrupted were shown to be analysis indicates that six out of the nine classical non-functional (6), and insertion of additional nucleotides into tertiary interactions are held in place mainly by the T-loop or deletion of G19 from the D-loop affected the H-bonds between the bases. In the remaining three accuracy of the codon–anticodon recognition, resulting in a cases other effects have to be considered. -
Structure of DNA &
Structure Of DNA & RNA By Himanshu Dev VMMC & SJH DNA DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid DNA - a polymer of deoxyribo- nucleotides. Usually double stranded. And have double-helix structure. found in chromosomes, mitochondria and chloroplasts. It acts as the genetic material in most of the organisms. Carries the genetic information A Few Key Events Led to the Discovery of the Structure of DNA DNA as an acidic substance present in nucleus was first identified by Friedrich Meischer in 1868. He named it as ‘Nuclein’. Friedrich Meischer In 1953 , James Watson and Francis Crick, described a very simple but famous Double Helix model for the structure of DNA. FRANCIS CRICK AND JAMES WATSON The scientific framework for their breakthrough was provided by other scientists including Linus Pauling Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins Erwin Chargaff Rosalind Franklin She worked in same laboratory as Maurice Wilkins. She study X-ray diffraction to study wet fibers of DNA. X-ray diffraction of wet DNA fibers The diffraction pattern is interpreted X Ray (using mathematical theory) Crystallography This can ultimately provide Rosalind information concerning the structure Franklin’s photo of the molecule She made marked advances in X-ray diffraction techniques with DNA The diffraction pattern she obtained suggested several structural features of DNA Helical More than one strand 10 base pairs per complete turn Rosalind Franklin Maurice Wilkins DNA Structure DNA structure is often divided into four different levels primary, secondary, tertiary -
Reflections on the Historiography of Molecular Biology
Reflections on the Historiography of Molecular Biology HORACE FREELAND JUDSON SURELY the time has come to stop applying the word revolution to the rise of new scientific research programmes. Our century has seen many upheavals in scientific ideas--so many and so varied that the notion of scientific revolution has been stretched out of shape and can no longer be made to cover the processes of change characteristic of most sciences these past hundred years. By general consent, two great research pro- grammes arising in this century stand om from the others. The first, of course, was the one in physics that began at the turn of the century with quantum theory and relativity and ran through the working out, by about 1930, of quantum mechanics in its relativistic form. The trans- formation in physics appears to be thoroughly documented. Memoirs and biographies of the physicists have been written. Interviewswith survivors have been recorded and transcribed. The history has been told at every level of detail and difficulty. The second great programme is the one in biology that had its origins in the mid-1930s and that by 1970 had reached, if not a conclusion, a kind of cadence--a pause to regroup. This is the transformation that created molecular biology and latter-day biochemistry. The writing of its history has only recently started and is beset with problems. Accounting for the rise of molecular biology began with brief, partial, fugitive essays by participants. Biographies have been written of two, of the less understood figures in the science, who died even as the field was ripening, Oswald Avery and Rosalind Franklin; other scientists have wri:tten their memoirs. -
Erwin Chargaff 1905–2002
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ERWIN CHARGAFF 1 9 0 5 – 2 0 0 2 A Biographical Memoir by SEYMOUR S. COHEN with selected bibliography by ROBERT LEHMAN Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. Biographical Memoir 2010 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES WASHINGTON, D.C. ERWIN CHARGAFF August 11, 1905–June 20, 2002 BY SEYMOUR S . COHEN 1 AND ROBERT LEHMAN N 1944, AS VARIOUS ARMIES WERE planning to invade central IEurope, the recently naturalized U.S. citizen and Columbia University biochemist had learned of the report of O. T. Avery and his colleagues that the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of a specific strain of pneumococcus constituted the genetically specific hereditary determinant of that bacterium. Almost alone among the scientists of the time, Chargaff accepted the unusual Avery report and concluded that genetic differ- ences among DNAs must be reflected in chemical differences among these substances. He was actually the first biochemist to reorganize his laboratory to test this hypothesis, which he went on to prove by 1949. His results and the subsequent work on the nature of DNA and heredity transformed biomedical research and training for the next fifty years at least, and established potentialities for the development of biology, which have created economic entities and opportunities, as well as major ethical and political controversies. Trained as an analytical chemist, Chargaff had never imagined that he would help to solve a major cytological problem. Reprinted with the permission from Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (vol. -
Front Matter (PDF)
COLD SPRING HARBOR SYMPOSIA ON QUANTITATIVE BIOLOGY VOLUME XXVI COLD SPRING HARBOR SYMPOSIA ON QUANTITATIVE BIOLOGY Founded in 1933 by REGINALD G. HARRIS Director o/ the Biological Laboratory 1924 to 1936 The Symposia were organized and managed by Dr. Harris until his death. Their continued use- /ulness is a tribute to the soundness o/ his vision. The Symposium volumes are published by the Long Island Biological Association as a part of the work of the Biological Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor, L.I., New York COLD SPRING HARBOR SYMPOSIA ON QUANTITATIVE BIOLOGY VOLUME XXVI Cellular Regulatory Mechanisms THE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY COLD SPRING HARBOR, L.I., NEW YORK 1961 COPYRIGHT 1962 BY THE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY LONG ISLAND BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, INC. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 34-8174 All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part except by reviewers for the public press without written permission from the publisher PRINTED BY WAVERLY PRESS, INC., BALTIMORE,MARYLAND, U.S.A. FOREWORD During the past twenty years, research in genetics and biochemistry, while superficially directed toward an understanding of different aspects of cell behavior, has been moving to a union which appears to have been completed in the presen- tations at this symposium on Cell Regulatory Mechanisms. Sessions were devoted to the role of the genetic material as an information code in protein synthesis and the mechanism of information transfer from DNA to the site of synthesis. Major attention was devoted to cellular mechanisms governing the rates of enzyme ac- tivity and enzyme synthesis. While most of the research presented dealt with microorganisms, the significance of these efforts for questions of normal and ab- normal growth and development in multicellular forms is quite apparent. -
Samuel H. Barondes 1
EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE Giovanni Berlucchi Mary B. Bunge Robert E. Burke Larry E Cahill Stanley Finger Bernice Grafstein Russell A. Johnson Ronald W. Oppenheim Thomas A. Woolsey (Chairperson) The History of Neuroscience in" Autob~ograp" by VOLUME 5 Edited by Larry R. Squire AMSTERDAM 9BOSTON 9HEIDELBERG 9LONDON NEW YORK 9OXFORD ~ PARIS 9SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO 9SINGAPORE 9SYDNEY 9TOKYO ELSEVIER Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier Elsevier Academic Press 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, Massachusetts 01803, USA 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101-4495, USA 84 Theobald's Road, London WC1X 8RR, UK This book is printed on acid-free paper. O Copyright 92006 by the Society for Neuroscience. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier's Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, E-mail: [email protected]. You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://elsevier.com), by selecting "Support & Contact" then "Copyright and Permission" and then "Obtaining Permissions." Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003 111249 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 13:978-0-12-370514-3 ISBN 10:0-12-370514-2 For all information on all Elsevier Academic Press publications visit our Web site at www.books.elsevier.com Printed in the United States of America 06 07 08 09 10 11 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Working together to grow libraries in developing countries www.elsevier.com ] ww.bookaid.org ] www.sabre.org ER BOOK AID ,~StbFC" " " =LSEVI lnt ..... -
Plant G-Quadruplex (G4) Motifs in DNA and RNA; Abundant, Intriguing Sequences of Unknown Function T
Plant Science 269 (2018) 143–147 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Plant Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/plantsci Review article Review: Plant G-quadruplex (G4) motifs in DNA and RNA; abundant, intriguing sequences of unknown function T ⁎ Brianna D. Griffin, Hank W. Bass Department of Biological Science, 319 Stadium Drive, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 32306-4295, USA ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: DNA sequences capable of forming G-quadruplex (G4) structures can be predicted and mapped in plant genomes G-quadruplex using computerized pattern search programs. Non-telomeric G4 motifs have recently been found to number in G4 the thousands across many plant species and enriched around gene promoters, prompting speculation that they Gene regulation may represent a newly uncovered and ubiquitous family of cis-acting elements. Comparative analysis shows that cis-regulatory element monocots exhibit five to ten times higher G4 motif density than eudicots, but the significance of this difference has not been determined. The vast scale and complexity of G4 functions, actual or theoretical, are reviewed in relation to the multiple modes of action and myriad genetic functions for which G4s have been implicated in DNA and RNA. Future experimental strategies and opportunities include identifying plant G4-interactomes, resolving the structures of G4s with and without their binding partners, and defining molecular mechanisms through reporter gene, genetic, or genome editing approaches. Given the global importance of plants for food, clothing, medicine, and energy, together with the potential role of G4 motifs as a widely conserved set of DNA sequences that could coordinate gene regulation, future plant G4 research holds great potential for use in plant improvement strategies. -
De Novo Nucleic Acids: a Review of Synthetic Alternatives to DNA and RNA That Could Act As † Bio-Information Storage Molecules
life Review De Novo Nucleic Acids: A Review of Synthetic Alternatives to DNA and RNA That Could Act as y Bio-Information Storage Molecules Kevin G Devine 1 and Sohan Jheeta 2,* 1 School of Human Sciences, London Metropolitan University, 166-220 Holloway Rd, London N7 8BD, UK; [email protected] 2 Network of Researchers on the Chemical Evolution of Life (NoR CEL), Leeds LS7 3RB, UK * Correspondence: [email protected] This paper is dedicated to Professor Colin B Reese, Daniell Professor of Chemistry, Kings College London, y on the occasion of his 90th Birthday. Received: 17 November 2020; Accepted: 9 December 2020; Published: 11 December 2020 Abstract: Modern terran life uses several essential biopolymers like nucleic acids, proteins and polysaccharides. The nucleic acids, DNA and RNA are arguably life’s most important, acting as the stores and translators of genetic information contained in their base sequences, which ultimately manifest themselves in the amino acid sequences of proteins. But just what is it about their structures; an aromatic heterocyclic base appended to a (five-atom ring) sugar-phosphate backbone that enables them to carry out these functions with such high fidelity? In the past three decades, leading chemists have created in their laboratories synthetic analogues of nucleic acids which differ from their natural counterparts in three key areas as follows: (a) replacement of the phosphate moiety with an uncharged analogue, (b) replacement of the pentose sugars ribose and deoxyribose with alternative acyclic, pentose and hexose derivatives and, finally, (c) replacement of the two heterocyclic base pairs adenine/thymine and guanine/cytosine with non-standard analogues that obey the Watson–Crick pairing rules. -
Conformation and Polymorphism in PNA-DNA and PNA-RNA Hybrids (Chimera/Duplex/Triple Helix/Molecular Mechanics)
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 90, pp. 9542-9546, October 1993 Biochemistry Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) conformation and polymorphism in PNA-DNA and PNA-RNA hybrids (chimera/duplex/triple helix/molecular mechanics) ORN ALMARSSON AND THOMAS C. BRUICE Department of Chemistry, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Contributed by Thomas C. Bruice, July 19, 1993 ABSTRACT Two hydrogen-bonding motifs have been pro- nucleic acids, is their stability toward nucleases. Although the posed to account for the extraordinary stability of polyamide designing of the PNA analogues of DNA has been described "peptide" nucleic acid (PNA) hybrids with nucleic acids. These by the inventors (4), the design rationale does not explain the interresidue- and intraresidue-hydrogen-bond motifs were in- great stability of the PNA hybrids with nucleic acids, as vestigated by molecular mechanics calculations. Energy- exemplified by PNA-strand invasion of double-helical DNA. iinimized structures of Watson-Crick base-paired decameric Our recent molecular mechanics study (5) with the B-helix duplexes of PNA with A-, B-, and Z-DNA and A-RNA poly- structure of the DNA*PNA duplex (dAp)lo'(pnaT)lo [where morphs indicate that the inherent stability of the complemen- (dAp)10 is the decanucleotide of 2'-deoxyadenosine 5'- tary PNA helical structures is derived from interresidue, rather phosphate and (pnaT)lo is the decamer of thyminyl PNA with than from intraresidue, hydrogen bonds in all hybrids studied. lysine amide attached to the C terminus] strongly suggests that Intraresidue-hydrogen-bond lengths are consistently longer the stability of DNA*PNA duplexes is due to interresidue than interresidue hydrogen bonds.