Question concerning the discovery of Guanine?

Question

Hermann Emil Fischer was the first chemist to isolate guanine, but can anyone tell me how or with what experiment? Thanks

Answer 1

In order to understand the human genome we first had to understand the structure of DNA. DNA, specifically the double helix structure of DNA, was discovered by an orthonology student and an ex-physicist, by the names of James Watson and Francis Crick.

After observing an X-ray of a crystallized DNA molecule, Watson was able to see what the form of DNA looked like. The X-ray in question was actually made by a woman whose part in the discovery of the double helix has been somewhat downplayed. Rosalind Franklin was on the verge of publishing a paper on the research she had been conducting on the properties of DNA. Watson got a copy of an X-ray she had done during her research, and from this he proceeded to look at other tidbits of her work. This work described how to read the measurements of the x-ray he had obtained and much more. With this “borrowed” information he and his colleague discovered DNA’s structure -- the famous double helix. Franklin’s death was what led to her disappearance from history. Even Watson admits that if she hadn’t died, she should have been given the Nobel Prize which he received for the discovery. Although the basis of their discovery was borrowed from another researcher, they did do some foot work on their own.


Using 3-D molecular models Crick and Watson examined the four bases -- adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine. Watson discovered that “an adenine-thymine pair held together by two hydrogen bonds was identical in shape to guanine-cytosine pair.”

Which begs the question of how when did molecular biology have its beginnings.

The history of molecular biology begins in the 1930's with the convergence of various, previously distinct biological disciplines: biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, and virology. With the hope of understanding life at its most fundamental level, numerous physicists and chemists also took an interest in what would become molecular biology.

In its modern sense, molecular biology attempts to explain the phenomena of life starting from the macromolecular properties that generate them. Two categories of macromolecules in particular are the focus of the molecular biologist: 1) nucleic acids, among which the most famous is deoxyribonucleic acid (or DNA), the constituent of genes, and 2) proteins, which are the active agents of living organisms.