FRANCIS CRICK (USA 1916-2004) JAMES DEWEY WATSON (UK b.1928)

1953 – UK

‘The self reproducing genetic molecule DNA has the form of a double helix’

WATSON & CRICK

The structure explains how DNA stores information and replicates itself.
The helical strands of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) consist of chains of alternating sugar and phosphate groups. Four types of base – adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T) – form the rungs of the DNA ladder, which can only be linked by hydrogen bonds in four combinations: A-T, C-G, T-A, G-C.

The DNA code is based on the order of these four bases and is carried from one generation to the next. The sequence of base pairs along the length of the strands is not the same in DNAs of different organisms. It is this difference in the sequence that makes one gene different from another.