DNA as the genetic material

DNA as the genetic material.

Process by which DNA makes copies of itself to yield identical double stranded daughter DNA molecules.

Imagine yourself in 1953 ( The discovery of DNA double helix by James Watson and Francis Crick ), after the double helix structure of DNA has just been discovered. What burning questions might be on your mind, and on the minds of other scientists ? It seemed likely that the two complementary strands of the helix might separate during replication, each serving as a template for the construction of a new, matching strand..

Concept of a template. Before the structure of DNA was known, scientists wondered at the ability of organisms to create faithful copies of themselves ……………. Thoughts about these issues centered around the concept of a template……… Before Watson and Crick described DNA’s structure, DNA was identified as the genetic material.

DNA Replication is semi-conservative : Each daughter cell will have one old strand (the template), and one new strand (the copy)..