Abstract:
Nucleic acids store genetic information and transferred from one generation to the
next, marking them as crucial to almost all the living organisms. On a cellular level,
they serve as a ‘guide book’ to cells for the synthesis of proteins, orchestrating the
process of cell cycle and reproduction.1 In 1869, Friedrich Miescher first discovered and
isolated a mysterious phosphorous-rich material, later called nuclein, from the nuclei
of white blood cells; which was subsequently called as nucleic acids. There are two
types of nucleic acids namely, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid
(RNA). All the genetic information that encoded in DNA is transformed through the
replication process in which synthesis of DNA takes place. Further, DNA is transcribed
to mRNA in cell nucleus and mRNA further translated to proteins in cytoplasm (Figure
1). This entire process is known as central dogma of molecular biology.2 In the year
1953, Francis Crick and James D. Waston, presented a milestone paper proposing the
secondary structure of B-form DNA based on the model constructed using known
information such as Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray diffraction data.3
