Dna Structure and Function, History
DNA was discovered in the nineteenth century, but its significance as the physical basis of inheritance was not understood until midway through the twentieth. The realization that it was the molecule of heredity led to intensive efforts to determine its three-dimensional structure, and to understand how it stores and transmits genetic information. The discovery of the structureof DNA, and the elucidation of its function, ranks as one of the greatest achievements of science.
Discovery of Dna
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was first discovered in 1869 by Johann Friedrich Miescher (1844-1895), a young Swiss chemist studying in Tübingen, Germany. Miescher's interest in the biochemistry of the cell nucleus led him to collect used surgical bandages, from which he collected pus (white blood cells), which have very large nuclei. From these, he purified a new compound, which he termed "nuclein." Miescher showed that nuclein was a large molecule, acidic, and rich in phosphorus. Miescher continued to work with nuclein over the next two decades, turning for his source to salmon sperm, which have exceptionally large nuclei and were plentiful in the rivers near his laboratory. One of his students renamed the compound "nucleic acid."
In 1885 the German biologist Oskar Hertwig (1849-1922) suggested that nucleic acid might be the hereditary material, based on its presence in the nucleus and the growing certainty that the nucleus was the center of heredity.
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