Unconnected strands of DNA must be sealed together during genome replication and repair, and a new KAUST-led investigation shows how the fastening enzyme involved gets the job done.
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 24, 2023
0
65
EPFL researchers have discovered that it is not just molecular density, but also pattern and structural rigidity, that control super-selective binding interactions between nanomaterials and protein surfaces. The breakthrough ...
Biochemistry
Nov 22, 2022
0
37
Trapped in a microscopic cage made of strands of DNA, molecules of a life-saving drug course through the bloodstream of a cancer patient. Only when receptors on the strands sense they've arrived at the right location—cancer ...
Bio & Medicine
Oct 27, 2022
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25
A study published in the journal PLOS ONE could one day help health workers determine whether bacteria of the species Streptococcus pneumoniae, which cause meningitis—an inflammation of the membranes that envelop the brain ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 6, 2022
0
111
Researchers at the Universities of Bayreuth and Linköping have produced two surprising compounds of nitrogen and the rare earth metal yttrium under very high pressure. The new polynitrides contain ring- and spiral-shaped ...
Materials Science
Aug 3, 2022
1
91
Extrusion-based 3D printing of bio solids, or "bioprinting," is a promising approach to generating patient-specific, tissue-engineered grafts. However, a major challenge in bioprinting is that most currently used materials ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 29, 2022
0
67
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have uncovered how the double helix structure of DNA is opened to allow DNA replication. The work could lead to further studies to better understand this process including how it ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 16, 2022
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15
New findings reveal an advanced, unexpected two-way communication between the function and organization of chromosomes in the cell nucleus. Previous research shows that the organization of chromosomal DNA into loops regulate ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 13, 2022
0
66
The molecules of life, DNA, replicate with astounding precision, yet this process is not immune to mistakes and can lead to mutations. Using sophisticated computer modeling, a team of physicists and chemists at the University ...
General Physics
May 5, 2022
3
3337
French doctor and researcher Marthe Gautier, who died over the weekend, was one of a long line of women scientists who greatly contributed to scientific discovery only to see the credit go to their male colleagues.
Other
May 4, 2022
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134
In geometry a double helix (plural helices) typically consists of two congruent helices with the same axis, differing by a translation along the axis, which may or may not be half-way.
The term "double helix" is commonly encountered in molecular biology, where it refers to the structure of DNA. The double-helix model of DNA structure was first published in the journal Nature by James D. Watson and Francis Crick in 1953, based upon the crucial X-ray diffraction image of DNA (labeled as "Photo 51") from Rosalind Franklin in 1952 , followed by her more clarified DNA image with Raymond Gosling, Maurice Wilkins, Alexander Stokes and Herbert Wilson, as well as base-pairing chemical and biochemical information by Erwin Chargaff.
Crick, Wilkins and Watson each received one third of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contributions to the discovery. (Franklin, whose breakthrough X-ray diffraction data was used to formulate the DNA structure, died in 1958, and thus was ineligible to be nominated for a Nobel Prize.)
The DNA double helix is a right-handed spiral polymer of nucleic acids, held together by nucleotides which base pair together. A single turn of the helix constitutes ten nucleotides. The double helix structure of DNA contains a major groove and minor groove, the major groove being wider than the minor groove. Given the difference in widths of the major groove and minor groove, many proteins which bind to DNA do so through the wider major groove .
The order, or sequence, of the nucleotides in the double helix within a gene specifies the primary structure of a protein.
The term entered popular culture with the publication in 1968 of The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, by James Watson.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
