Module 7 Lesson 1 - 5

Lesson Summary

The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 allowed scientists to begin to understand in detail how hereditary information is passed to the next generation. It allowed scientists to explore the processes that occur to change our hereditary information. Then, processes such as mutations could be examined at the molecular level.

The concept that mutations could cause strange superhuman effects rarely was found in the comic book industry before the 1950s. After DNA was discovered, more  mutant superheroes were created.

The discovery of DNA as the molecule responsible for heredity and the structural characteristics of DNA go hand-in-hand. When scientists could see and were able to  examine closely the structure of DNA, the conclusion was that this molecule is responsible for passing our genetic information to the next generation.

Throughout this lesson, you learned about some of the many scientists who contributed to solving these scientific questions. Every experiment and discovery built on the most recent, pushing forward toward the eventual result - the structure and function of DNA. The double helix that Watson and Crick modelled was impossible without the x-ray image from Rosalind Franklin. The complementary base pairing in Watson and Crick's model may not even have been thought of without the information from Phoebus Levene and his identification of the four nucleotides and their respective percent compositions.

In this lesson, you learned about the history of the identification of DNA and the structure of DNA. In the next lesson, you will see how the structure of DNA directly determines its function.