Kimberly Hanslovan 1 The DNA Story Did you ever wonder about the blue print of your body?

Or what components ma e up all livin! thin!s? "ell if you have# you$re in luc % The main character is my story is myself& DNA' ( am awesome and ma e up every nown livin! thin!# the story ( am !oin! to tell is the story of how ( came to be discovered' There were many chemists# physicists and biolo!ist that had a hand in crac in! my code# but don$t fret# ( didn$t ma e it easy on them' (t too them decades and ( still haven$t told them everythin!& snea y ( now' )y story be!an in the year 1*+,' A biochemist by the name of -riedrich )iescher decided to loo at the pus left of dirty banda!es from a local hospital# tal about !ross% He was studyin! the white blood cells because the scientists of his time determined that white blood cells were the basic unit of life' )iescher# bein! a Swiss biochemist# was intelli!ent and he was the first to e.tract the best thin! ever /me0 from a cell' ( !uess playin! with all that pus paid off% After ( allowed )iescher to find me# his analysis was that ( am composed of 12,H3,O22N,4' (t was an insult to me that he assumed ( was so simple% The formula he constructed was partially correct# however# it was only one of my many fra!ments' ( did not reveal my true self for many decades' After all# doesn$t the sayin! !o# a little mystery eeps one interested? After ten years# ( was really impressed by the advances made to the microscope' ( fi!ured ( had ept one of my secrets lon! enou!h and would allow 5erman biolo!ist "alther -lemmin! the 6oy of seein! my chromosomes' After many studies# the scientists of that era reali7ed my chromosomes played a ey role in inheritance' (t was a 5erman researcher# Os ar Hertwi! who too the results of )iescher study and declared that (# DNA# was responsible for the transmission of heritable characteristics' ( was very impressed by this claim# seein! that it is entirely true# however many scientists durin! Hertwi!$s time# includin! )iescher# did not believe it% They

Kimberly Hanslovan 2 thou!ht my collea!ue protein was responsible for !enetic traits# ( am sorry to say this but to thin )r' 4rotein would be capable of doin! such comple. thin!s by him self is absurd' ( am not sayin! ( could do it without proteins help# but he certainly could not do it without me% Nevertheless# the scientists insisted on continuin! the debate until a brea throu!h occurred' Oswald Avery# 1olin )c8eod and )aclyn )c1arty finally determined that (# DNA# carried the entire !enetic code' Once the scientists discovered how fantastic ( was# there was an added ur!ency to determine my structure' ( was instantly famous% Throu!h all the papara77i and covera!e# it is understood that some of my more intimate secrets revealed themselves' 9y 1,::s# it was nown that my basic buildin! bloc s were phosphate# a su!ar and four heterocyclic bases' (t was 4hobeus 8evene who called my units nucleotides' He understood that nucleotides made up my bac bone and without them# ( would never have succeed in accomplishin! all my !enetic dreams' Now 8evene was !ood# but not !reat' He thou!ht all my molecules were the same four nucleotides# whatever their ori!ins simply repeated in a clear se;uence' How could he have even considered that ( was so simple? ( thou!ht he understood me% So ( stepped away# ( waited to find someone who really cared to !et to now the whole me# ( found the one in the 1,<:s# well the two actually' They were Swedish researchers and boy were they sweet% They understood that ( was a polymer and fou!ht for me when others doubted my comple.ity' "ith the aid of Austrian chemist =rwin 1har!aff# my boys rapidly demolished 8evene$s four>nucleotide hypothesis' ( trusted them enou!h to allow them to see the real me# made of two purines /A and 50 and two prymidines /1 and T0' )y boys went on to discover that each livin! species ( ma e up differs in the amount of A# 1# 5# and T' ( told you ( was comple.% ( am so comple. that no matter which tissue ( am e.tracted from# the proportions of A# 1# 5 and T are the same within the same

Kimberly Hanslovan < species% See if protein can compete with that% Throu!h the ne.t year my main man 1har!aff and ( became ti!ht' ( showed him that for every A in my ma eup ba! ( carried an e;ual number of Ts' 8i ewise# the proportion of 5s and 1s in my purse always corresponded' At the time of this discovery# 1har!aff thou!ht he had a hold on me and called these ratios 1har!aff$s ratios' "hat a thou!ht# that one man would ever have a hold on me% ( was li e ?no way# not never% ( don@t want to be )rs' 1har!aff for the rest of my life' (@m DNA# o ay?A So ( ended it' At this time# most of my secrets had been told' Nevertheless# no one had yet had the pleasure of seein! my three>dimensional structure' ( waited and waited for the scientists of the 1,<:s era to introduce me to B>ray crystallo!raphy' 9ein! that awesome scholar that ( am# ( was really interested in the wor of Dorothy Hod! ins and )a. 4erut7' These scientists were usin! .>ray crystallo!raphy to ta e pictures of lar!e biolo!ical molecules and determine their structure' ($m not !oin! to lie# ( was a bit 6ealous that the scientist thou!ht of molecules li e penicillin and hemo!lobin before they thou!ht of me# after all ( am the most important unit to the human !enome% 9ut ( told myself no need to !et impatient# they are simply savin! the best for last' (t was 1,<* that ( sat in for a hi!h end photo shoot with "illiam Astbury' The B>ray pictures Astbury too did not turn out ;uite li e he hoped but they were e.actly what ( was !oin! for' The pictures were very abstract and hard to interpret they ept my audience !uessin!' The final phase of solvin! my pu77le relied on B>ray crystallo!raphy and ( wasn$t !oin! to reveal all in one shot% Throu!h the 1,3:s ( had decided to travel inorder to find the perfect scientist to reveal my <D structure to' Sometime around 1,3* ( ran into )aurice "il ins at Kin!$s 1olle!e# 8ondon' He was intri!ued by my lon! fibres and was very successful in isolatin! sin!le fibers from my structure' This continued for three years# and at this point in my life ( had be!an to

Kimberly Hanslovan 3 settle down and ( allowed "il ins to see the bits of re!ularity ( had' Then she came alon!& Cosaline -ran lin was an e.pert in B>ray crystallo!raphyD she had an international reputation for her wor of coals' This !irl came into our lab and acted li e the boss' "il ins and ( were unaware that she was recruited to be in char!e of the B>ray studies of me' So her and my )aurice did not e.actly !et alon!' 9ut who am ( to pic sides? (t was time for me to reveal my structure and she was the best% ( had to let her photo!raph me and this time ( was showin! it all% ( hit the most spectacular poses% )y coiled helical shape was accentuated perfectly and when you loo this !ood# you do not need 4hotoshop' Around this same time frame# -rancis 1ric and Eames "atson 6oined forces at the 1avendish 8aboratory in 1ambrid!e intent on crac in! my structure themselves' They were utili7in! this new a!e approach called model buildin!' Ceally it reminded me of the children ( am a part of and them playin! with 8incoln 8o!s' They would use metal plates for the nucleotides and rods for the bonds between them' Honestly ( did not now what playin! with metal and rods was !oin! to accomplish but ( was leavin! it up to the scientists' "atson and 1ric had done their research of my other fantastic scientists but they were runnin! into problems when considerin! if my phosphate !roups should !o inside or outside my heli. and they had no idea how to incorporate 1har!aff$s idea of base pairin!' )y complete structure remained a mystery' (n 1,F2# my old chum "il ins showed "atson one of -ran lin$s photos of my 9>form' 9 is for best you now% Anyway# this picture was the perfect clueD it was beautifully simple and represented the e.act helical structure for my molecules' The final clue came when an American chemist Eerry Donohue pointed out how hydro!en bondin! allowed A to pair with T and 1 to 5' This solved the problem "atson and 1ric ran into concernin! the location of my phosphates' (t determined that my double helical

Kimberly Hanslovan F structure had two stands in which my bases were paired on the inside and my phosphates were on the outside' This led "atson and 1ric to build a model of my double helices' They concluded that my structure defined my function' "hich was the simplest thin!D of course my structure defined my function' How else would ( have copied myself durin! cell division? On April 2F# 1,F< "atson and 1ric officially published a paper in Nature that revealed their discovery of my structure' (n the ne.t issue of Nature# -ran lin and "il ins published their own separate papers earnin! them some reco!nition for helpin! to crac my devious code' (n 1,+2 1ric # "atson and "il ins went on to win the Nobel pri7e for their wor ' Cosaline -ran lin the !reat photo!rapher that she was# died in the year 1,F* from cancer due to over e.posure of B>ray radiation' She will always be remembered for ta in! the best pictures of me' The discovery of my structure led to an une.plored field of biolo!y' A few years later# it was discovered that ( self>replicate by splittin! my DNA strands and utili7in! translation and transcription of construct e.act replicas' This is actually referred to the central do!ma of biolo!y% Scientist went on the crac the !enetic code and reali7ed that ( direct the synthesis of protein' ( !uess that finally settled a decades>lon! debate as to who was better# me or protein# ( am the life molecule for !oodness sa e there never should have been a ;uestion% As ( have said many times throu!hout this story# ( am a very comple. molecule and have held many secrets' The scientists mentioned above were selected for their !reat talents and interests in me' To this day ( am continually travelin! and bein! studied' All the uses and benefits of this awesome molecule will be reali7ed in due time' Gntil then# have fun crac in! my code and studyin! the complete !enome se;uence of many or!anisms# includin! yourself%

Kimberly Hanslovan +