Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
In 1953, American biologist James Watson and English physicist Francis Crick published a scientific paper that revealed a groundbreaking discovery: the shape of DNA.
“This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest,” they wrote.
That turned out to be an understatement. The discovery of the double helix would go on to revolutionize the scientific world, leading to major developments in disease screening and treatment, food production, and forensic science.
Now, scientists have identified another structure of DNA.
In a paper published in Nature Chemistry, researchers from Australia describe the first-ever sighting of a DNA component—called the intercalated motif (i-motif)—within living human cells. Its shape has been likened to a “twisted knot.”
genomicist Marcel Dinger, who co-led the research. “In the knot structure, C [cytosine] letters on the same strand of DNA bind to each other – so this is very different from a double helix, where ‘letters’ on opposite strands…
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