AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Chargaff’s realization that A = T and C = G, combined with some crucially important X-ray crystallography work by English researchers Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, contributed to Watson and Crick’s derivation of the three-dimensional, double-helical model for the structure of DNA.

Detailed explanation-2: -Watson and Crick proposed that the DNA is made up of two strands that are twisted around each other to form a right-handed helix, called a double helix. Base-pairing takes place between a purine and pyrimidine: namely, A pairs with T, and G pairs with C.

Detailed explanation-3: -Erwin Chargaff found that in DNA, the ratios of adenine (A) to thymine (T) and guanine (G) to cytosine (C) are equal. This parity is obvious in the final DNA structure.

Detailed explanation-4: -This sentence refers to the work of Erwin Chargaff, a biochemist at Columbia University. In the late 1940s, Chargaff analyzed the proportions of the four different types of base molecules in DNA, and found that DNA always contains equal amounts of guanine and cytosine, and equal amounts of adenine and thymine.

Detailed explanation-5: -As a biochemist at Columbia University in the 1940’s, Dr. Chargaff discovered regularities among the four chemical units of DNA known as bases, pointing directly to its role as the hereditary material of living organisms.