"The complementary structure of DNA"

Date:: [1954]

Reference:: PP/CRI/H/1/28

Credit: "The complementary structure of DNA". Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Tb e Complementary Strie ture of IMA. F.H.G.Crick 5Vh*CW€ ÍV»j¿Í£.lr t pol^Vcíi»»!. %«WM* 'J '• y'iK , ye*¿r\ This paper reviews very briefly the -Á—sray work on the structure of the sodium salt of desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). By structure is meant, not the chemical formula, but the spacial arrangement of the atoms. The structure revealed Tay X-rays is the general structure - that is, the featmres common to DNA from different sources, since the X-rays only respond clearly to the repeating part of the structure, and effectively say nothing about the exact sequence of the bases, which orobably does not repeat. general chemical formula has been described in this Symposium by Prof. A.R.Todd' and will be taken as known. The X-ray work is carried out on fibres drawn from extracted DNA from a variety of sources. The early studies were by z Astbury and Bell. Almost all the recent work has been done at Kings' College, London by Drs. Wilkins, Franklin and their colleagues. Preliminary studies are reported in Wilkins, Gosling and Seeds 5 . More detailed reports on the X-ray data have been given in two papers by Franklin and H Gosling. Evidence for the helical nature of the structure and for some of its other features has been presented by s in a preliminary way by <vilkins, Stokes and Wilson, and by Franklin and Gosling/ More detailed interpretations of the crystalline form have been given by Franklin and GoslingJ and by Wilkins, StcM , cu.d. UsiLftr* . Ä l n addition <¡ Wilkins and Randall have shown that the oriented sperm heads ogive a very si-nilar X-ray pattern^ to$

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"The complementary structure of DNA"

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