title: Surprising Wilkins’ error (Nature 1953, 172: 755–762)
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Khromov-Borisov, Nikita
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2024-06-07T12:12:14Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2024-06-07T12:12:14Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2024-03
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Khromov-Borisov, N. 2024. Surprising Wilkins’ error (Nature 1953, 172: 755–762). Bio. Comm. 69(1): 47–49. https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu03.2024.105
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu03.2024.105
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/45571
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962 was awarded jointly to Francis
  Harry Compton Crick, James Dewey Watson and Maurice Hugh Frederick
  Wilkins “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids
  and its significance for information transfer in living material”. Building the
  scale atomic-molecular models and applying strong inference Watson and Crick
  (1953a,b) presented convincing evidences for the following features of the spatial
  structure of the DNA molecule: (i) this structure has two helical chains each
  coiled round the same axis; (ii) both chains follow right-handed helices; (iii) the
  sequences of the atoms in the two chains run in opposite directions; (iv) the two
  chains are held together by hydrogen-bonded purine and pyrimidine bases;
  (v) the planes of the bases are perpendicular to the fibre axis; (vi) only specific
  pairs of bases can bond together: adenine (purine) with thymine (pyrimidine),
  and guanine (purine) with cytosine (pyrimidine). X-ray evidence obtained
  at the same time by Wilkins et al. (1953a,b), and Franklin et al. (1953a,b) gave
  qualitative support to this structure and was incompatible with all previously
  proposed structures. Wilkins et al. (1953b) built molecular models of the type
  described by Watson and Crick (1953a) and adjusted them to conform with
  their experimental data. However, it appeared that the paper by Wilkins et al.
  (1953b) contains a curious and inexplicable error. Namely, in their Figure 3 DNA
  is schematically drawn as a left-handed helix, which, as Crick and Watson (1954)
  explained, is stereochemically impossible and must be right-handed. The fact
  stated here was mysteriously not noticed before and, fortunately, had no detrimental
  effect on the development of science.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: en
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Biological Сommunications;Volume 69; Issue 1
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: DNA double helix
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: chirality
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: M. H. F. Wilkins
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: error
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: science history
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: Surprising Wilkins’ error (Nature 1953, 172: 755–762)
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: BioComm_69_1_47-49.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/45571/1/BioComm_69_1_47-49.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 1,13 MB