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Nature 452, 819-820 (17 April 2008) | doi:10.1038/452819a; Published online 16 April 2008
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Human genetics: Dr Watson's base pairs
Maynard V. Olson1
Abstract
The application of new technology to sequence the genome of an individual yields few biological insights. Nonetheless, the feat heralds an era of 'personal genomics' based on cheap sequencing.
This issue of Nature contains a paper that is, in a curious way, a sequel to one published 55 years ago — the description by James Watson and Francis Crick1 of the double-helical structure of DNA. At the information-carrying core of this beautiful structure, with its far-reaching implications for biology and medicine, are the base pairs that Watson discovered by fitting together cardboard cut-outs of the bases adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine.
- Maynard V. Olson is in the Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195-7720, USA.
Email: mvo@u.washington.edu
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