This insight is all the more remarkable because it preceded the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule by Watson and Crick and how it is separately translated and replicated in the cell—though it followed the Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment which identified DNA as the molecular carrier of genetic information in living organisms. The DNA molecule is processed by separate mechanisms that carry out its instructions (translation) and copy (replicate) the DNA for newly constructed cells.
This insight is all the more remarkable because it occurred before the discovery of the DNA molecule's structure by Watson and Crick, as well as how it is separately translated and replicated within the cell—although it followed the Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment that identified DNA as the molecular carrier of genetic information in living organisms. The DNA molecule undergoes distinct processes to execute its instructions (translation) and produce a duplicate (replication) for newly formed cells.