< b>Acid, nucleic: One of the molecules in the chromosomes of living cells
and viruses that plays a central role in the storage and replication of hereditary
information and in the expression of this information through protein synthesis.
The two chief types of nucleic acids are:
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) which contains the hereditary information in
humans and
RNA (ribonucleic acid) which delivers the instructions coded in this information
to the cell's protein manufacturing sites.
History: In 1869 Friedrich Miescher developed ways of isolating intact
nuclei from cells and analyzing their chemical content. From the nuclei he extracted
substances rich in phosphorus and nitrogen. They came to be known as "nucleic acids."
Miescher predicted that they would someday be considered as important as proteins.
The substances turned out to be deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which was found by Avery,
MacLeod and McCarty in 1944 to be the genetic material. They proved this clearly
by using bacterial DNA to change (transform) the genetic material of other bacteria.
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