In 1952, American scientist Linus Pauling (1901–1994) was the world’s leading structural chemist and odds-on favorite to solve the structure of DNA. Other scientists were also actively exploring this field during the mid-20th century. These relationships are also known as Chargaff’s rules. He found that the amount of adenine was very close to equaling the amount of thymine, and the amount of cytosine was very close to equaling the amount of guanine, or A = T and G = C. Department of Chemistry, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Faraday Building, Sackville Street, P.O Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK. Each nucleotide consists of three subunits: a phosphate group and a sugar (ribose in the case of RNA, deoxyribose in DNA) make up the backbone of the nucleic acid strand, and attached to the sugar is one of a set of nucleobases. Backbone modification of nucleic acids: synthesis, structure and therapeutic applications. Around this time, Austrian biochemist Erwin Chargaff 1(1905–2002) examined the content of DNA in different species and discovered that adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine were not found in equal quantities, and that it varied from species to species, but not between individuals of the same species. Nucleic acids consist of a chain of linked units called nucleotides. Note the 5ʹ and 3ʹ ends of this nucleic acid strand.īy the early 1950s, considerable evidence had accumulated indicating that DNA was the genetic material of cells, and now the race was on to discover its three-dimensional structure. \): Phosphodiester bonds form between the phosphate group attached to the 5ʹ carbon of one nucleotide and the hydroxyl group of the 3ʹ carbon in the next nucleotide, bringing about polymerization of nucleotides in to nucleic acid strands.
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