Nucleic acid double helix

In <a href="/facts/Molecular_biology/YgqU35ub">molecular biology</a>, the term double helix refers to the structure formed by <a href="/facts/Base_pair/xmPpPQ9W">double-stranded</a> molecules of <a href="/facts/Nucleic_acid/2tTgcI0v">nucleic acids</a> such as <a href="/facts/DNA/nB89Iauz">DNA</a>. The double <a href="/facts/Helix/BqC4AKwL">helical</a> structure of a nucleic acid complex arises as a consequence of its <a href="/facts/Nucleic_acid_secondary_structure/qXjlsFK5">secondary structure</a>, and is a fundamental component in determining its <a href="/facts/Nucleic_acid_tertiary_structure/ExXJ3V0x">tertiary structure</a>. The structure was discovered by <a href="/facts/Maurice_Wilkins/nT5vv4Tu">Maurice Wilkins</a>,
<a href="/facts/Rosalind_Franklin/RL6AYVPM">Rosalind Franklin</a>, her student <a href="/facts/Raymond_Gosling/cQIPq9DC">Raymond Gosling</a>, <a href="/facts/James_Watson/TnXJ7GCp">James Watson</a>, and <a href="/facts/Francis_Crick/AG05HNKI">Francis Crick</a>, while the term "double helix" entered popular culture with the 1968 publication of Watson's <a href="/facts/The_Double_Helix/zFXUExNY">The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA</a>.
The DNA double helix <a href="/facts/Biopolymer/GaCwr4EY">biopolymer</a> of <a href="/facts/Nucleic_acid/2tTgcI0v">nucleic acid</a> is held together by <a href="/facts/Nucleotide/pQKEwlJI">nucleotides</a> which <a href="/facts/Base_pair/xmPpPQ9W">base pair</a> together. In <a href="/facts/B-DNA/XHeMuslB">B-DNA</a>, the most common double helical structure found in nature, the double helix is right-handed with about 10–10.5 base pairs per turn. The double helix structure of DNA contains a major groove and minor groove. In B-DNA the major groove is wider than the minor groove. Given the difference in widths of the major groove and minor groove, many proteins which bind to B-DNA do so through the wider major groove.

Nucleic acid double helix open-in-new

Nucleic acid double helix