Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids

February 9, 2021 Jeremiah Hendren

Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids

Watson, James, and Francis Crick
Nature 171, no. 4356 (1953): 737-738
https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0

We wish to put forward a radically different structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. This structure has two helical chains each coiled round the same axis (see diagram). We have made the usual chemical assumptions, namely, that each chain consists of phosphate diester groups joining beta-D-deoxyribofuranose residues with 3',5' linkages. The two chains (but not their bases) are related by a dyad perpendicular to the fibre axis. Both chains follow right-handed helices, but owing to the dyad the sequences of the atoms in the two chains run in opposite directions. Each chain loosely resembles Furberg’s model No. 1; that is, the bases are on the inside of the helix and the phosphates on the outside. The configuration of the sugar and the atoms near it is close to Furberg’s ‘standard configuration’, the sugar being roughly perpendicular to the attached base. There is a residue on each every 3-4 A. in the z-direction.

James Watson & Francis Crick

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