Watson-Crick base pairing
Watson- Crick base pairing
Background
In 1953, James D Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA using X ray Crystallography. They worked out that DNA was a double helix using Rosalind Franklin's X ray diffraction pattern.[1] At first, it was thought that DNA was made up of many chemicals, which proved too difficult to analyse, but the researchers persisitence led to the discovery of complementary base pairing.
Pairing
It has been found that DNA contains four bases namly adenine (A), thymine(T), guanine(G) and cytosine(C). A and T occur in same amounts and C and G occur in same amounts, thus the two possible base pair combinations.[2]
- ↑ BBC NEWS. Science/Nature Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2804545.stm [accessed 2 December 2011]
- ↑ DNA tutorial Available :http://www.dnatutorial.com/BasePairing.shtml [accessed 2 December 2011]