Chapter 6: DNA Structure, Replication, and Recombination
When available, the links under the Suggested Readings section will take you to websites
that either provide free electronic full-text versions of these references, or links to online
abstracts. All of these abstracts are themselves free. Many of the abstract sites contain
links to online full-text versions of the references; some of these full-text versions are
free, while others require personal or institutional subscriptions. None of the sites that can
be accessed through the links below are affiliated with McGraw-Hill Publishers.
The Original Publication of Watson and Crick Presenting the Double-Helical
Structure of DNA
Suggested Readings
 Watson JD and F.H.C. Crick. 1953. Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A
Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid. Nature 737(4356) [full text links: 1 , 2]
The original paper by Watson and Crick in which they describe the structure of
the DNA molecule.
Websites
 NobelPrize.org
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/
The biographies of James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, corecipients of the 1962 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine “for their
discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its
significance for information transfer in living material”
 Time 100
http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/watsoncrick.html
Time magazine named James Watson and Francis Crick one of the 100 most
influential people of the 20th century. This article gives a brief history of the
events leading up to the discovery of DNA structure.
Original Publications Describing the Chemical Nature of the Gene and Models for
DNA Replication and Recombination
Suggested Readings
 Avery, OT., CM MacLeod and M. McCarty. 1944. Studies of the Chemical
Nature of the Substance Inducing Transformation in Pneumococcal Types.
Journal of Experimental Medicine 79: 137-158. [full text link]
In this paper the authors present their results indicating that DNA is the
transforming principle first suggested by Griffith.
 Griffith, F. 1928. The Significance of Pneumoncoccal Types. Journal of Hygiene.
27:113-159. [full-text link]
In this paper Frederick Griffith first describes the process of transformation. The
transforming principle was later shown by Avery et al. to be DNA.
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Hershey AD. And M. Chase. 1952. Independent Functions of Viral Protein and
Nucleic Acid in Growth of Bacteriophage. Journal of General Physiology. 36:3956. [full-text link]
This paper describe the Hershey-Chase experiments that confirmed DNA’s role as
the genetic material.
Huberman, JA and AD Riggs. 1968. On the Mechanism of DNA Replication in
Mammalian Chromosomes. J. Mol. Biol. 32:327-341. [Entrez-PubMed link]
Huberman and Riggs used isotope-labeled thymidine to demonstrate that
eukaryotic chromosomes possess multiple origins of replication.
Kornberg, A. 1988. DNA Replication. The Journal of Biological Chemistry
263(1): 1-4 [full-text link]
This minireview provides a nice overview of the process of DNA replication.
Meselson, M and FW Stahl. 1958. The Replication of DNA in Escherichia coli.
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 44:671-682. [full-text link]
The paper that demonstrated that DNA replication is semi-conservative.
More on the Recovery and Analysis of DNA from Extinct Organisms
Suggested Readings
 Binladen, J. C. Wiuf and M.T.P. Gilbert. 2006. Assessing the Fidelity of Ancient
DNA Sequences Amplified from Nuclear Genes. Genetics. 172(2):733-741 [fulltext link]
This article examines the types of DNA mutations that are common to ancient
DNA. Discussions include the rates of type 1 and type 2 transitions and cytosine
deamination.
 Handt, OM, M. Richards, M.Trommsdorff et al. 1994. Molecular Genetic
Analysis of the Tyrolean Ice Man. Science 264:1775-1778. [Entrez-PubMed link]
The article describing how researchers isolated and analyzed genomic and
mitochondrial DNA from the mummified remains of a 5000 man frozen in the
Alps.
 Paabo, S. 1989. Ancient DNA: Extraction, Characterization, Molecular Cloning,
and Enzymatic Amplification. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 86(6)1939-1943. [fulltext link]
This early article describes how the limitations of amplifying genomic DNA from
extinct organisms using cloning techniques can be alleviated using the newly
developed procedure of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This set the stage
for much of recent work on ancient DNA.
 Paabo, S., H. Poinar, D. Serre et al. 2004. Genetic Analyses from Ancient DNA.
Annu Rev Genet. 38:645-679. [Entrez-PubMed link]
This review article covers some of the work being performed on ancient DNA and
an estimate of the reliability of the results.
Websites
 National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0606_050606_alpsbears.html
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This is the link to an article entitled “Ancient Bear DNA Mapped – 1st for an
Extinct Species. The site also contains links to additional sequencing efforts for
other extinct species.
NCBI News
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Web/Newsltr/V15N1/mammoth.html
An article on the NCBI site that contains instructions on how to search genomic
databases for DNA sequences of extinct organisms.
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