DNA sequencing 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick put forward their double-helix model of DNA, based on crystallized X-ray structures being studied by Rosalind Franklin – and without crediting her. According to the model, DNA is composed of two strands of nucleotides coiled around each other, linked together by hydrogen bonds and running in opposite directions. Each strand is composed of four complementary nucleotides – adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T) – with an A on one strand always paired with T on the other, and C always paired with G. They proposed such a structure allowed each strand
Non-helical models of DNA structure as evidence that the strands were plectonemically wound together ("i.e.," topologically linked). The publication of the Rodley structure produced a small but significant ripple of interest in the molecular biological community. However, the level of interest was sufficiently high so that Crick - by that time one of the world’s most influential scientists - publicly suggested that the SBS structure (whose existence he doubted) should be laid to rest by intentionally creating it. Then, he reasoned, its properties could be ascertained, and then shown to be abnormal with respect to the known properties of native DNA. An investigation by Stettler