Abstract
IN their description of the specific pairing of the nucleotides of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), Watson and Crick1 proposed that this pairing was the basis for a mechanism of duplication: if unwinding occurred at the time of replication, each strand of the double helix could act as a template for the creation of a new molecule so that each daughter molecule would be a ‘hybrid’ of a parental strand and a new strand. Since then there have been several demonstrations that DNA replication does indeed result in an equal division of the parent molecule between the two daughters2,3. This, however, has not put the hypothesis beyond the realm of cavil. The DNA which divides between the two daughters might, the argument goes4,5, consist of a pair of double helices : if so, no unwinding of the strands would be necessary to produce the observed result, and the mechanism of replication could be radically different from that proposed by Watson and Crick.
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CAIRNS, J. Proof that the Replication of DNA involves Separation of the Strands. Nature 194, 1274 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/1941274a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1941274a0
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