[Untitled draft]

Date:: [1953]

Reference:: PP/CRI/H/1/12/4

Credit: [Untitled draft]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$pairing occurs, the adenine (having resumed its more usual tautomeric form) will pair with thymine, but the cytosine will pair with guanine. Thus a mistake will have occurred in the copying process, We feel that our proposed structure may also throw light on the specific attraction between homologous chromosomes in meiosis. Attraction at meiosis in polyploids as well as diploids always seems to be a pairing process, since only two chromosomes can associate at any one point. This makes it probable that the attractive forces are not of a general type but are due to an attraction between pairs at the molecular level. Our structure suggests that the pairing results from the formation of hydrogen bonds between specific bases. For the moment the general scheme we have proposed must be regarded as speculative. Even if it is correct, it is clear from what we have said that much remains to be discovered before the picture of genetic duplication can be described in detail. What are the polynucleotide precursors? What makes the pair of chains unwind and separate? What is the precise role of the protein? Is the chromosome one long pair of DNA chains, or does it consist of patches of DNA joined together by protein? Despite these uncertainties we feel that our proposed structure for DNA may help to solve one of the fundamental biological problems - the molecular basis of the template needed for genetic replication. The hypothesis we are suggesting is that the template is the pattern of bases formed by one chain of the DNA and that the gene contains a complementary pair of such templates. One of us (J.D.W.) has been aided by a fellowship from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (U.S.A.). \$

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[Untitled draft]

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