Erwin Chargaff was a biochemist who migrated to the united states to get away from all the Nazi troubles. He studied at Yale University, but he didnt like Connecticut so he moved back to Europe and studied at the University of Berlin. (1)Chargaff read Oswald Avery's report that heredity unites and genes were composed of DNA. This led him to do more research, "Avery gave us the first text of a new language."(2) The rules state that DNA from any cell should have a 1:1 ratio of pyrimidine and purine bases. The amount of quanine is equalt to cytosine as well as the amount of adenine is eqaul to thymine.(1)
- A double-stranded DNA molecule globaly has a percentage base pair equality: %A = %T and
%G = %C (1)
-Both %A ~ %T and %G ~ %C are valid for each of the two strands. (1)
Chargaffs work was useful to other scientists like James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953. They concluded that DNA exists in a 3-D double helix. (Image to the right.)
Resources
1. Wikipedia: Erwin Chargaff
2. Chargaff and Avery
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