James Watson 因为在60年前和Francis Crick 一起发现了DNA的双螺旋结构而获得1962年的诺贝尔奖。他后来主持过NIH的人体基因组研究。因为口无遮拦，经常引起争议。近日，他在加州的SALK研究所讲演，对基因研究现状表示不满，认为那些研究癌症的遗传学家们 别再用脚来思考 （这个是我加的私货 ），而是需要一个好的化学头脑。 “化学是中心科学”，那是很多化学家津津乐道的事。 离开了化学，大多数生物研究都可能是一团糟。我也时常看到一些CNS的文章里面的化学内容惨不忍睹，因此我对沃森的这个评论表示理解。 就像是物理学家不可以不精通数学，化学家不能不懂物理，生物学家们，可别轻视化学啊。 因为年事已高，沃森的话不能全信，不过，有些内容还是值得大家思考。 【参考：读者可以从下面的文字和网站（全文）查阅沃森除了调戏遗传学家，还对爱尔兰人有看法，跟因为发光蛋白的研究而获诺贝尔化学奖的钱永健也有交锋。】 http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/21/nobel-watson-DNA-irish/?printpage=all Watson, 84, visited the Salk to give a public lecture on the roles that oxidants and anti-oxidants might play in cancer and diabetes . The Salk is deeply involved in cancer research, and it has plans to spend millions of dollars on new sequencing machines to better explore how mutant genes contribute to disease. La Jolla has become a major research center, in part, because Watson and Francis Crick resolved the structure of DNA in 1953, opening up genetics and molecular biology. Watson also was the first director of the Human Genome Project. While noting that genetics is vital, Watson said, You could sequence 150,000 people with cancer and its not going to cure anyone . It might give you a few leads, but it's not, to me, the solution. The solution is good chemistry . And that's what's lacking. We have a world of cancer biology trained to think genes. They don't think chemistry at all . Watson, who had his entire genome sequenced, said the current level of cancer research funding is enough to find a cure. But he added that most of the experiments we do are irrelevant ... We're not going to cure cancer by doubling the money . We're going to do it by being more intelligent . The money thing is just a red herring of people not thinking.
No.4356 April 25, 1953 NATURE Molecular structure of Nucleic acid A structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest. A structure for nucleic acid has already been proposed by Pauling and Corey . They kindly made their manuscript available to us in advance of publication. They model consists of three inter-twined chains, with the phosphates near the fibre axis, and the bases on the outside. In our opinion, this structure is unsatisfactory for two reasons: 1)We believe that the material which gives the X-ray diagrams is the salt, not the free acid. Without the acidic hydrogen atoms it is not clear what forces would hold the structure together, especially as the negatively charged phosphates near the axis will repel each other. 2) Some of the van der Waals distances appear to be too small. Another three-chain structure has also been suggested by Fraser(in the press). In his model the phosphates are on the outside and the bases on the inside, linked together by hydrogen bonds. This structure as described is rather ill-defined, and for this reason we shall not comment on it. We wish to put forward a radically different structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. This structure has two helical chains each coiled round the same axis(see diagram), We have made the usual chemical assumptions , namely, that each chain consists of phosphate diester groups joining β -D-deoxyribofuranose residues with 3’,5’ linkages. The two chains (but not their bases) are related by a dyad perpendicular to the fibre axis. Both chains follow right handed helices, but owing to the dyad the sequences of the atoms in the two chains run in opposite directions. Each chain loosely resembles Furberg’s model No.1; that’s , the bases are on the inside of the helix and the phosphates on the outside. The configuration of the sugar and the atoms near it is close to Furberg’s “standard configuration”, the sugar being roughly perpendicular to the attached base. There is a residue on each chain every 34A, in the z-direction. We have assumed in the same chain, so that the structure repeats after 10 residues on each chain, that is, after 34A. The distance of a phosphorus atom from the fibre axis is 10A. As the phosphates are on the outside ,cations have easy access to them. The structure is an open one, and its water content is rather high. At lower water contents we would expect the bases to tilt so that the structure could become more compact. The novel feature of the structure is the manner in which the two chains are held together by the purine and pyrimidine bases. The planes of the bases are perpendicular to the fibre axis. There are join together in pairs, a single base from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single base from the other chain, so that the two lie side by side with identical z-co-ordinates. One of the pair must be a purine and the other a pyrimidine for bonding to occur. The hydrogen bonds are made as follows: purine position I to pyrimidine position I ; purine position 6 to pyrimidine position 6. If it is assumed that the bases only occur in the structure in the most plausible tautomeric forms(that is , with the keto rather than the enol configurations)it is found that only specific pairs of bases can bond together. These pairs are: adenine(purine) with thymine (pyrimidine), and guanine(purine) with cytosine(pyrimidine). In other words, if an adenine forms one member of a pair, on either chain, then on these assumptions the other member must be thymine; similarly for guanine and cytosine. The sequence of the bases on a single chain does not appear to be restricted in any way. However, if only specific pairs of bases can be formed, it follows that if the sequence of bases one chain is given, then the sequence on the other chain is automatically determined. It’s has been found experimentally that the ratio of the amounts of adenine to thymine, and the ratio of guanine to cytosine , are always very close to unity for deoxyribose nucleic acid. It’s probably impossible to build this structure with a ribose sugar in place of the deoxyribose , as the extra oxygen atom would make too close a van der Waals contact. The previously published X-ray data on deoxyribose nucleic acid are insufficient for a rigorous test of our structure. So far as we can tell, it is roughly compatible with the experimental data, but it must be regarded as unproved until it has been checked against more exact results. Some of these are given in the following communications. We were not aware of the detail of the details of the results presented there when we devised our structure, which rests mainly though not entirely on published experimental data and stereo-chemical arguments. It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for genetic material. Full details of the structure , including the conditions assumed in building it, together with a set of co-ordinates for the atoms, will be published elsewhere. We are much indebted to Dr.Jerry Donohue for constant advice and criticism, especially on inter atomic distances. We have also been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M.H.F.Wilkins, Dr. R.E.Franklin and their co-workers at King’s College, London. One of us(J.D.W)has been aided by a fellowship from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. J.D.Watson, F.H.C.Crick DNA 双螺旋结构 pdf原文下载链接： Nov2004Classics.pdf
标签: 沃森
![Molecular structure of Nucleic acid[沃森克里克DNA论文]](http://image.sciencenet.cn/album/201107/11/154729yxuoujtrztkjt5uu.jpg.thumb.jpg)
