were replaced by DNA. Possessed with the idea of immortality of the
genes Watson put on the wall behind his desk a sheet of paper with the
inscription: “DNA→RNA→Protein”, which turned into the Central dogma
of molecular biology (see Crick, 1970).
image
Figure 2–39. DNA double helix (After Alberts at al., 1989).
A tribute to the revealing of the spatial structure of DNA have also
other researchers whose results have prepared the terrain for this
discovery accepted as the greatest in biology of the XX century: the first
X-ray studies on nucleic acids (Astbury, Bell, 1938; Astbury, 1947); the
Pauling and co-authors models of the helical configuration of the
polypeptide chains and nucleic acids (Pauling, Corey, 1951 a—c, 1953;
Pauling et al., 1951 d); the X-ray studies of Wilkins at al. (1953 a, b) on
the spatial structure of DNA; the famous X-ray diagram of Rosalind
Franklin and Gosling (1953) — Fig. 2–40 that has experimentally proved
the suggestions of the helical structure of DNA, and E. Chargaff’s rules
about the equimolar quantities of the purine and pyrimidine bases
(Chargaff, 1950).