In their 1953 paper on the double-helical structure of DNA, Watson and Crick famously wrote: "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material." What did they mean?

Question

Aryan Mayer

Biology

21 April, 00:21

In their 1953 paper on the double-helical structure of DNA, Watson and Crick famously wrote: "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material." What did they mean?

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Answers (1)

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Cassie Cuevas · Answer 1

The statement suggests ability of existing DNA molecule to replicate itself by the process of DNA replication. Each strand of double helical DNA can serve as template for the synthesis of new complementary DNA strand.

Explanation:

Watson and Crick proposed the double-helical structure of DNA. Accordingly, the DNA molecule is a double helical structure in which two polynucleotide chains are held together by base pairing between the complementary bases of two chains.

There are four nitrogenous bases present in DNA: adenine and guanine (purines) and cytosine and thymine (pyrimidines). Adenine always pairs with thymine and cytosine pairs with guanine base.

According to Watson and Crick, the ability of one DNA strand to base-pair with a complementary DNA strand suggests the existence of the DNA replication process. During DNA replication, each DNA strand should serve as a template to specify the nucleotide sequence of the new DNA strand.