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P.A Levene
1920's; Was the one that determined what the basic structure of the nucleotides that made up the DNA were. He found that the nucleotides of DNA contained the sugar deoxyribose, a phosphate, and 1 of 4 nitrogenous bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, or uracil. He also found that the nucleotides of RNA contain the sugar ribose, a phosphate, and 1 of 4 nitrogenous bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, or uracil. (in textbook) -
Fredrick Griffith
Was the first to perform an experiment that helped lead to the study of DNA. He found that if you took two strains of bacteria and put them together you could transform or change one of the strains into the other form. (online textbook) -
Linus Pauling
1930's; Was one of the founders of the fields of quantum physics and molecular biology. (in textbook) -
Oswald Avery
Him and his colleagues were the ones that identified the molecule that transformed the one strain of bacteria to the other. He found that when both strains were exposed to DNA the R strain would transform into the S strain. He concluded that DNA was the molecule that transformed the strains in the original experiment. (online textbook) -
Rosalind Franklin
Found that DNA was double helix, or triple latter shaped. This is formed by two strands of nucleotides that are twisted around each other. (in textbook) -
Hershey and Chase
The couple that published the evidence that proved that DNA was the molecule to create the transformations. In these experiments the couple labeled the parts of a virus to see which one was the part that was the genetic material when injected into a bacteria cell. (in textbook) -
Erwin Chargaff
1950's; Analyzed the amount of adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine in the DNA of various species. He found that the amounts of guanine and cytosine were about equal and the amount of adenine and thymine were about equal. This then created what’s called Chargaff’s Rule: C = G and T = A.
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James Watson and Francis Crick
1950's; Used Chargaff and Franklin’s data to create a model of what DNA would look like. The model had some key aspects to it: 1.) Two outside strands consisting of alternating deoxyribose and phosphate 2.) Cytosine and guanine bases pair to each other by 3 hydrogen bonds 3.) Thymine and adenine bases pair to each other by 2 hydrogen bonds. (in textbook) -
Maurice Wilkins
1950's; worked at King’s College in London and created a technique called X-ray diffraction. This technique involved aiming X-rays at the DNA molecule. (in textbook)
