What was dna originally called

Journal of Biological Chemistry 40 , — Rich, A. Zhang, S. Z-DNA: The long road to biological function. Nature Reviews Genetics 4 , — link to article. Watson, J. A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature , — link to article. Wolf, G. Chemical Heritage 21 , , 37—41 Restriction Enzymes.

Genetic Mutation. Functions and Utility of Alu Jumping Genes. Transposons: The Jumping Genes. DNA Transcription.

What is a Gene? Colinearity and Transcription Units. Copy Number Variation. Copy Number Variation and Genetic Disease. Copy Number Variation and Human Disease. Tandem Repeats and Morphological Variation. Chemical Structure of RNA.

Eukaryotic Genome Complexity. RNA Functions. Pray, Ph. Citation: Pray, L. Nature Education 1 1 The landmark ideas of Watson and Crick relied heavily on the work of other scientists. What did the duo actually discover? Aa Aa Aa. Figure 1: The chemical structure of a nucleotide. A single nucleotide is made up of three components: a nitrogen-containing base, a five-carbon sugar, and a phosphate group. The nitrogenous base is either a purine or a pyrimidine. Of Avery's work, Chargaff wrote the following: "This discovery, almost abruptly, appeared to foreshadow a chemistry of heredity and, moreover, made probable the nucleic acid character of the gene Figure 2: What is Chargaff's rule?

These features are as follows: DNA is a double-stranded helix, with the two strands connected by hydrogen bonds. A bases are always paired with Ts, and Cs are always paired with Gs, which is consistent with and accounts for Chargaff's rule. Most DNA double helices are right-handed; that is, if you were to hold your right hand out, with your thumb pointed up and your fingers curled around your thumb, your thumb would represent the axis of the helix and your fingers would represent the sugar-phosphate backbone.

The DNA double helix is anti-parallel, which means that the 5' end of one strand is paired with the 3' end of its complementary strand and vice versa. As shown in Figure 4, nucleotides are linked to each other by their phosphate groups, which bind the 3' end of one sugar to the 5' end of the next sugar. Not only are the DNA base pairs connected via hydrogen bonding, but the outer edges of the nitrogen-containing bases are exposed and available for potential hydrogen bonding as well.

These hydrogen bonds provide easy access to the DNA for other molecules, including the proteins that play vital roles in the replication and expression of DNA Figure 4.

Figure 4: Base pairing in DNA. Two hydrogen bonds connect T to A; three hydrogen bonds connect G to C. The bottom four base pairs are shown flattened instead of twisted, so this region can be easily seen in a cut-away showing a close-up view. The cut-away shows the individual atoms and bonds in the DNA molecule.

Phosphate groups are depicted within light brown spheres, and the bonds between the phosphate and oxygen atoms are shown. The sugars are represented by grey pentagons that show where oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms are attached to the unmarked carbon atoms at the corners. An oxygen atom from each phosphate molecule is connected by a black line to a carbon atom from the sugar molecule.

These black lines represent the covalent bonds between the sugars and phosphate groups. The sugar molecules are each attached to a nitrogenous base.

The nitrogenous bases from the two DNA strands meet in the center of the molecule, where they are connected with hydrogen bonds shown by dotted, red lines. At the top left side, a guanine base with two fused rings G, shown in blue is bound to a cytosine base with a single ring C, shown in gold on the opposite strand. These two bases are held together by three hydrogen bonds. Below this base pair, a thymine base with a single ring T, shown in red is bound to an adenine base with two fused rings A, shown in green on the opposite strand.

These two bases are held together by two hydrogen bonds. Below this pair, a single-ringed cytosine base is bound to a double-ringed guanine base by three hydrogen bonds. In the final pair, an adenine base with two fused rings is bound to a single-ringed thymine by two hydrogen bonds.

Figure 5: Three different conformations of the DNA double helix. A A-DNA is a short, wide, right-handed helix. Genetics: A Conceptual Approach , 2nd ed. The two strands are held together by bonds between the bases; adenine bonds with thymine, and cytosine bonds with guanine.

The sequence of the bases along the backbones serves as instructions for assembling protein and RNA molecules. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the central information storage system of most animals and plants, and even some viruses. The name comes from its structure, which is a sugar and phosphate backbone which have bases sticking out from it--so-called bases. So that "deoxyribo" refers to the sugar and the nucleic acid refers to the phosphate and the bases. The bases go by the names of adenine, cytosine, thymine, and guanine, otherwise known as A, C, T, and G.

DNA is a remarkably simple structure. It's a polymer of four bases--A, C, T, and G--but it allows enormous complexity to be encoded by the pattern of those bases, one after another. Instead, he isolated a new molecule he called nuclein DNA with associated proteins from a cell nucleus. While Miescher was the first to define DNA as a distinct molecule, several other researchers and scientists have contributed to our relative understanding of DNA as we know it today. The full answer to the question who discovered DNA is complex, because in truth, many people have contributed to what we know about it.

DNA was first discovered by Friedrich Miescher, but researchers and scientists continue to expound on his work to this day, as we are still learning more about its mysteries. Watson and Crick contributed largely to our understanding of DNA in terms of genetic inheritance, but much like Miescher, long before their work, others also made great advancements in and contributions to the field. The future of DNA has great potential.

DNA insights are already enabling the diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases. Science is also hopeful that medicine will advance to be able to leverage the power of our own cells to fight disease. For example, gene therapy is designed to introduce genetic material into cells to compensate for abnormal genes or to make a therapeutically beneficial protein. Researchers also continue to use DNA sequencing technology to learn more about everything from combating infectious disease outbreaks to improving nutritional security.

Ultimately, DNA research will accelerate breaking the mold of the one-size-fits-all approach to medicine. Every new discovery in our understanding of DNA lends to further advancement in the idea of precision medicine, a relatively new way doctors are approaching healthcare through the use of genetic and molecular information to guide their approach to medicine.

With precision or personalized medicine, interventions take into consideration the unique biology of the patient and are tailored individually to each patient, rather than being based on the predicted response for all patients.

Using genetics and a holistic view of individual genetics, lifestyle, and environment on a case-by-case basis, doctors are better able to not only predict accurate prevention strategies, but also suggest more effective treatment options. But still, there is much to learn.

And with the potential that a deeper understanding of DNA will improve human health and quality of life across our world, no doubt, the research will continue. A full understanding of DNA of and between all living things could one day contribute to solving problems like world hunger, disease prevention, and fighting climate change.

The potential truly is unlimited, and to say the least, extremely exciting. Until recently, individuals were sources of samples in the traditional research model.

Today, the gap between research and individual is closing and the community is coming together to contribute health data to support research at scale, advance science, and accelerate medical discoveries at LunaDNA TM. There are so many treatments and cures to diseases that are close to being discovered, and your unique DNA data can help revolutionize the future of medicine.

Luna is bringing together individuals, communities, and researchers to better understand life. Directly drive health discovery by joining the Tell Us About You study. The more we come together to contribute health data for the greater good, the quicker and more efficient research will scale, and improve the quality of life for us all. Click here to get started.