Editing Nucleic acid (section)

== History ==
[[File:Friedrich Miescher.jpg|thumb|The [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[scientist]] [[Friedrich Miescher]] discovered the "nuclein", in 1868. Later, he raised the idea that it could be involved in [[heredity]].<ref>[[Bill Bryson]], ''[[A Short History of Nearly Everything]]'', Broadway Books, 2015.p. 500.</ref>]]
Nucleic acid was, partially, first discovered by [[Friedrich Miescher]] in 1869 at the [[University of Tübingen]], Germany. He discovered a new substance, which he called '''nuclein''' and which - depending on how his results are interpreted in detail - can be seen in modern terms either as a nucleic acid-[[histone]] complex or as the actual nucleic acid. [[Phoebus Levene]] determined the basic structure of nucleic acids.<ref>{{cite web | last=Bannwarth | first=Horst | title=Lexikon der Biologie | website=Spektrum.de | url=https://www.spektrum.de/lexikon/biologie/nuclein/46907 | language=de | access-date=2024-06-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Dahm R | title = Discovering DNA: Friedrich Miescher and the early years of nucleic acid research | journal = Human Genetics | volume = 122 | issue = 6 | pages = 565–581 | date = January 2008 | pmid = 17901982 | doi = 10.1007/s00439-007-0433-0 | s2cid = 915930 }} (Note: Page 575 mentions the inclusion or non-inclusion of proteins (histons) in the nuclein concept)</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Edlbacher | first=S. | title=Kurzgefasstes Lehrbuch der physiologischen Chemie | publisher=De Gruyter | year=2020 | isbn=978-3-11-146382-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lgHhDwAAQBAJ | language=de | access-date=2024-06-24 | page=85}} (Note: The original text is from 1940)</ref> In the early 1880s, [[Albrecht Kossel]] further purified the nucleid acid substance and discovered its highly acidic properties. He later also identified the [[nucleobase]]s.
In 1889 [[Richard Altmann]] created the term nucleic acid – at that time DNA and RNA were not differentiated.<ref name="nuclein">{{cite web |title=BIOdotEDU |url=http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/ahp/LAD/C4/C4_Components.html |website=www.brooklyn.cuny.edu |access-date=1 January 2022}}</ref>
In 1938 [[William Astbury|Astbury]] and Bell published the first X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cox|first1=Michael|last2=Nelson|first2=David | name-list-style = vanc |title=Principles of Biochemistry|date=2008|publisher=Susan Winslow|page=288|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_GUdBQAAQBAJ|isbn=9781464163074}}</ref>

In 1944 the [[Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment]] showed that DNA is the carrier of genetic information and in 1953 [[James Watson|Watson]] and [[Francis Crick|Crick]] [[Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid|proposed the double-helix structure of DNA]].<ref>{{cite web|title=DNA Structure|url=http://www.whatisdna.net/dna-structure/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803111702/http://www.whatisdna.net/dna-structure/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=August 3, 2016|website=What is DNA|publisher=Linda Clarks|access-date=6 August 2016}}</ref>

Experimental studies of nucleic acids constitute a major part of modern [[biological research|biological]] and [[medical research]], and form a foundation for [[genomics|genome]] and [[forensic science]], and the [[biotechnology]] and [[pharmaceutical industry|pharmaceutical industries]].<ref name="IHGSC">{{cite journal | vauthors = Lander ES, Linton LM, Birren B, Nusbaum C, Zody MC, Baldwin J, etal | title = Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome | journal = Nature | volume = 409 | issue = 6822 | pages = 860–921 | date = February 2001 | pmid = 11237011 | doi = 10.1038/35057062 | url = http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v409/n6822/pdf/409860a0.pdf | bibcode = 2001Natur.409..860L | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name="Venter">{{cite journal | vauthors = Venter JC, Adams MD, Myers EW, Li PW, Mural RJ, Sutton GG, etal | title = The sequence of the human genome | journal = Science | volume = 291 | issue = 5507 | pages = 1304–51 | date = February 2001 | pmid = 11181995 | doi = 10.1126/science.1058040 | bibcode = 2001Sci...291.1304V | doi-access =  }}</ref><ref name="Budowle">{{cite journal | vauthors = Budowle B, van Daal A | title = Extracting evidence from forensic DNA analyses: future molecular biology directions | journal = BioTechniques | volume = 46 | issue = 5 | pages = 339–40, 342–50 | date = April 2009 | pmid = 19480629 | doi = 10.2144/000113136 | doi-access = free }}</ref>