History of Nucleic Acid Chemistry

The History of Nucleic Acid Chemistry

Milestones

Isolation of DNA

The person credited with being the first to isolate DNA was the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher. He called the biochemical substance rich in phosphorus "nuclein". The initial work is dated as having occurred in early 1869.^[1] Miescher worked at the University of Tübingen at the time, and did not know what the function of nuclein was.

Structure of the DNA double helix

The correct structure of the DNA double helix was published by Watson and Crick in two milestone papers in 1957.^[2][3] The diffraction data was not from their own work, and the G:C base pair was incorrectly assumed to have only two hydrogen bonds. Still, the structure was a major breakthrough, as it explained how genetic information is stored and passed on to the next generation.

References

[1] R. Dahm, Friedrich Miescher and the discovery of DNA. Devel. Biol. 2005, 278, 274-288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2004.11.028

[2] Watson, J. D.; Crick, F. H. Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 1953, 171, 737-738. https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0

[3] Watson, J. D.; Crick, F. H. Genetical implications of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid. Nature 1953, 171, 964-967. https://doi.org/10.1038/171964b0