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The double helix: a tale of two puckers

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 10, pages 247–249 (2003)Cite this article

The era of the double helix began 50 years ago with publication of the Watson-Crick formulation1 and the fiber X-ray diffraction patterns from groups led by Maurice Wilkins2 and Rosalind Franklin3. Analysis of the diffraction pattern, especially the fibers of the hydrated B-form, could be immediately interpreted as consistent with a double helix: the weakness of the first-layer line and the virtual absence of the fourth-layer line clearly were consistent with two chains wrapping around each other with the phosphate groups on the outside.

More complex and not answered at the time was the question of why there were two forms. What was the nature of the less-hydrated fibers that produced the better-oriented and crystalline A-form, which could convert to the B-form? In those days a half-century ago, fiber diffraction was the only way such large, elongated molecules could be studied. Generally, the patterns revealed that the material in the fibers was rotationally disordered about the fiber axis. This was often at the molecular level in the hydrated B-form and usually as elongated microcrystals in the drier A-form. Although the diffraction patterns were limited in resolution, they were certainly consistent with the formulation. Over the next several years, work by Maurice Wilkins and colleagues gradually refined the nature of the double-helical model that could give rise to the increasingly detailed diffraction patterns. However, the diffraction pattern could not 'prove' the structure of the molecule as there was too little information.

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  1. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Alexander Rich

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Rich, A. The double helix: a tale of two puckers. Nat Struct Mol Biol 10, 247–249 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsb0403-247

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