Abstract
To better understand the contents of this book, the lay reader needs to know some basic facts about DNA, and the aim of the following brief introduction is to provide such a necessary background. The reader may also bump in the next chapters into some unusual terms so the Glossary at the end of this book should help him/her to understand the meaning of such words. And those readers who are experienced enough in this subject could skip this chapter.
All rising to great places is by a winding stair.
Francis Bacon (English philosopher), Of Great Place; Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625)
The DNA model of Watson and Crick looks like a diamond as big as the Ritz.
Maxim D. Frank-Kamenetskii (Russian-American biophysical theoretician), Unraveling DNA: The Most Important Molecule of Life (1997)
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Notes
- 1.
In addition to common Watson-Crick AT and GC base pairs, DNA nucleobases can form several unconventional pairs, including those with alternative hydrogen-bond pairing of A to T, and G to C (known as Hoogsteen base pairs), as well as AA, GG, and AG base pairs.
- 2.
References
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Allison LA (2007) Fundamental molecular biology. Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, NJ
Sinden RR (1994) DNA structure and function. Academic, San Diego
Frank-Kamenetskii MD (1997) Unraveling DNA: the most important molecule of life. Addison-Wesley, New York
Soyfer VN, Potaman VN (1995) Triple-helical nucleic acids. Springer, New York
Neidle S, Balasubramanian S (2006) Quadruplex nucleic acids. RSC Publishing, Cambridge
Demidov VV (2003) Golden jubilee of the DNA double helix. Trends Biotechnol 21:139–140
Cellania M (2014) 8 DNA sculptures from around the world. http://mentalfloss.com/article/54579/8-dna-sculptures-around-world
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Demidov, V.V. (2020). Introduction: DNA Basics—A Primer on DNA. In: DNA Beyond Genes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36434-2_1
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