Q.Who provided X-ray diffraction data of DNA?
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DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a polymer of deoxyribonucleotides that, as proposed by James Watson and Francis Crick using crystallographic data from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, takes the form of a right-handed double helix - two antiparallel polynucleotide strands (one running 5'->3', the other 3'->5') coiled around a shared axis and held together by hydrogen bonds between complementary base pairs. Adenine pairs with thymine through two hydrogen bonds, and guanine pairs with cytosine through three hydrogen bonds, in agreement with Chargaff's rule (A = T and G = C, so total purines always equal total pyrimidines). Because the two sugar backbones protrude from the base pairs at unequal angles, the helix surface has a wide major groove and a narrow minor groove. In the predominant B-form of DNA, bases are stacked 0.34 nm apart, with one full helical turn spanning 3.4 nm and containing about 10 base pairs, and an overall helix …
Watson and Crick's double-helix model was built on physical evidence about DNA's shape gathered by other scientists, most notably a set of X-ray diffraction images. …
Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin provided the X-ray diffraction photographs of DNA.
The discovery of the DNA double helix drew on several lines of evidence:
- Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin obtained the X-RAY DIFFRACTION patterns of DNA fibres, which revealed its helical, regularly repeating structure. …
- CBSE 2026Set A1 markMCQQ.The base pillar of both strands of DNA double helix is made of(a) Sugar - Phosphate(b) Sugar - Nitrogenous base(c) Nitrogenous base - Phosphate(d) Sugar-Phosphate-Nitrogenous base
›Reveal solutionSolution
The DNA backbone is a sugar–phosphate chain; the correct option is (a).
Each strand of the DNA double helix is a polynucleotide. Its backbone (the two side 'pillars' of the ladder) is formed by alternating deoxyribose sugar and phosphate groups joined by phosphodiester bonds. The nitrogenous bases project inward from this sugar–phos …
- CBSE 2025Set F1 markMCQQ.By which of the following bonds are the nucleotides of DNA attached?(a) Hydrogen(b) Covalent(c) Electrovalent(d) All of these
›Reveal solutionSolution
Nucleotides in a DNA strand are linked by covalent (phosphodiester) bonds.
Within a single polynucleotide strand, one nucleotide is joined to the next by a phosphodiester linkage: the phosphate group at the 5' carbon of one sugar is covalently bonded to the 3'-OH of the sugar of the adjacent nucleotide. These are strong covalent bonds that form the sugar-phosphate backbone. (Hydrogen bonds, by contrast, only hold the t …
- CBSE 2024Set E1 markMCQQ.Who provided X-ray diffraction data of DNA?(a) Maurice Wilkins & Rosalind Franklin(b) Chargaff(c) Watson and Crick(d) Holley
›Reveal solutionSolution
Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin provided the X-ray diffraction photographs of DNA.
The discovery of the DNA double helix drew on several lines of evidence:
- Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin obtained the X-RAY DIFFRACTION patterns of DNA fibres, which revealed its helical, regularly repeating structure. …
- CBSE 2024Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Watson and Crick model of DNA double helix is __________ form.(a) H(b) A(c) B(d) C
›Reveal solutionSolution
The classic Watson–Crick double helix, the most common and biologically dominant conformation of DNA, is designated the B-form.
In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick proposed a model for the structure of DNA, drawing on Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins's X-ray diffraction images. Their model describes DNA as:
- A right-handed double helix of two antiparallel polynucleotide strands.
- A sugar–phosphate backbone on the outside, with nitrogenous bases paired on the inside (A with T via 2 hydrogen bonds, G with C via 3 hydrogen bonds), stacked like the rungs of a twisted ladder.
- A helix diameter of about 20 Å, with about 10 base pairs per complete turn and a rise of about 3.4 Å per base pair (about 34 Å per turn). …
- CBSE 2023Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.The double helix model of DNA was proposed by :(a) Fred Sanger(b) Linnaeus(c) Robert Corey(d) Watson and Crick
›Reveal solutionSolution
James Watson and Francis Crick proposed the double helix model of DNA in 1953.
Watson and Crick, using X-ray diffraction data (notably Rosalind Franklin's Photo 51) along with Chargaff's base-pairing ratios, built a model showing that DNA consists of two polynucleotide strands wound around each other in a right-handed double helix. The two strands run antiparallel to each other, with the sugar-phosphate backbone on the outside and the nitrogenous bases (adenine pairing with thymine via two hydrogen bonds, and guanine pairing with cytosine via three hydrogen bonds) facing inward. This 1953 model earned Watson, Crick and Wilkins the Nobel Prize in 1962.
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- CBSE 2020Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Watson and Crick shared the Nobel Prize in _________ for their discovery.(a) 1963(b) 1961(c) 1960(d) 1962
›Reveal solutionSolution
Watson and Crick (along with Maurice Wilkins) received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for discovering the double-helical structure of DNA, published originally in 1953.
Watson and Crick proposed the double helix model of DNA structure in 1953, building on Rosalind Franklin's and Maurice Wilkins's X-ray diffraction data (notably "Photo 51"). Nine years later, in 1962, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." Rosalind F …
- CBSE 2018Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.What is the distance between two strands of DNA?(a) 34Å(b) 20Å(c) 10Å(d) 9.8Å
›Reveal solutionSolution
The DNA double helix has a constant diameter of 20 Å between its two sugar-phosphate strands, because a purine always pairs with a pyrimidine.
According to the Watson-Crick model of DNA, the molecule is a right-handed double helix made of two antiparallel polynucleotide chains coiled around a common axis. The distance between the two strands (the diameter of the helix) is uniform at 20 Å throughout the molecule - this uniformity is possible only because a two-ringed purine (A or G) always pairs with a one-ringed pyrimidine (T or C) via hydrogen bonds …
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