Meaning of âtraitâ in the English Dictionary. See all translations. uk â /treÉªt/ us â /treÉªt/. C2 a particular characteristic that can produce a particular type of behaviour: His sense of humour is one of his better traits. Arrogance is a very unattractive personality/character trait.
It appeared in April 1953 in the scientific paper where James Watson and Francis Crick presented the structure of the DNA-helix, the molecule that carries genetic information from one generation to the other.
Even though the shape of DNA is often described as a ladder, it is not a straight ladder. It is twisted to the right, making the shape of the DNA molecule a right-handed double helix. This shape allows for a large amount of genetic information to be 'stuffed' into a very small space. In fact, if you lined up each molecule of DNA in one cell end to end, the strand would be six feet in length.