Events and Researchers Involved in the Discovery of the DNA 1830 Late 1860 Proteins were thought to be the

most important molecule(proteios Greek of first importance) Friedrich Miescher while characterizing proteins from pus cells, a molecule different from protein was isolated from the nucleus and called it DNA Ernst Haeckel discovered that the most obvious cellular component of a cell was the nucleus Edmund Wilson using stain technique, he observed that the most important nuclear element handed from cell to cell was the DNA Frederick Griffith (US Medical Officer) did transformation experiment using Streptococcus pneumonia and declared the presence of transforming principle. The antivirulent (R) strain was transformed into virulent (S) type. Oswald Avery, Colin Macleod and Mclyn McCarty identified that the transforming principle (TP) was DNA. When the DNA was treated with proteinases and and Rnases, its transforming ability is retained but when treated with DNAses, transforming ability is lost. When TP was treated to remove proteins and RNA, the composition of the substance left matched the composition of the DNA Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase using blender experiment, they proved that the DNA is the genetic material of bacterial viruses which is injected into the cell during infection. The DNA labeled with 32P is injected into the cell while the labeled protein coat with 35S remained outside Norton Zinder, Joshua and Esther Lederberg using transduction experiment in Salmonella typhimurium further proved that DNA is the genetic material >When bacteriophage infects bacterial cell, a transducting phage picks a gene, infects and integrates the gene into a recipient cell Structure of the DNA was discovered by Rosalind Franklin, Maurice Wilkins, James D. Watson, and Francis C. Crick

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Francis C. Crick James D. Watson Maurice Wilkins Rosalind Franklin

Ph.D. in Biophysics and started to work on x-ray studies of proteins at Cambridge University in 1947 Ph.D. in Microbiology from Univ. of Indiana and in 1951 moved to Cambridge Univ. and shared office with Crick Ph.D. in Physics worked on radar and Manhattan Project and assistant Director of Medical Research at Kings College, London. He worked on x-ray diffraction of DNA. Expert on x-ray diffraction techniques and joined Kings College in 1951 to work on xray diffraction of DNA

Trail of the Elucidation of DNA Molecular Structure Rosalind Franklin, Gosling and Maurice Wilkins (Kings College, London) Helical structure, sugar and phosphate background outside, while nucleotides are tucked inside

James Watson and Francis Crick (Cambridge University)

Triple helix, phosphate in the center

Linus Pauling (Caltech) Triple helix

Other Researchers Consulted by Watson and Crick John Griffith nucleotides are flat, stack up on top of another, possibility of A=T, CG pairing. Crick saw the importance of specific pairing in replication process Erwin Chargaff purine-pyrimidine ration 1:1 (Chargaffs rule) Jerry Donohue H in the bases can change its position. This could be responsible for H bonding

Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acid, April 1953. Nature. 1716 737-738 Genetic Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid. May 1953. Nature 171: 964-967 Nobel Prize winner in 1962 for DNA configuration Rosalind died in 1958