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Correspondence
| Alexander L Dounce to LP, LP's reply. March 18, 1953. |
Alexander L Dounce to LP - Page 01
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Author: Linus Pauling
Alexander L Dounce to LP - Page 01
| Title: |
Alexander L. Dounce's correspondence to Linus Pauling [1 of 2] |
| Alternative Title: |
Alexander L. Dounce's correspondence to Linus Pauling, March 18, 1953 |
| Creator: |
Dounce, Alexander L. |
| Publisher: |
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| Date: |
1953-03-18 |
| Subject: |
Dounce, Alexander L. -- Correspondence
Nucleic acids -- Structure
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| Description: |
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| Type: |
Text |
| Format: |
text/plain |
| Language: |
en |
| Identifier: |
dounce01-pg01.jpg |
| Source: |
Master file format: TIFF, 600 dpi, Epson GT-10000+ flatbed scanner. |
| Rights: |
http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/copyright.html |
| Full Text: |
Dear Dr. Pauling: I just finished reading your paper in the Feb. proceedings national academic sciences on a new type structure
which you have proposed for nucleic acids. I have been interested in the biochemistry of the nucleic acids for some time
and have recently constructed a hypothetical duplicating mechanism for peptide chain and nucleic acids synthesis which seems
to be logically constant and which makes use of reaction types that are familiar to the biochemist. However this mechanism
requires functionality available phosphate groups as you will see if you care to glance through the enclosed reprint. Therefore
a single nucleotide chain or helix would be required as postulated Astbury and by Furberg, and if the three chain helix postulated
by you is correct, my mechanism must go into the wastebasket. Now I am sure that my mechanism, which after all is only a
hypothesis, cannot be entirely correct, and of course it may be entirely incorrect; the data suggest certain biochemical approaches
to the problem of peptide chain synthesis, and hence might be of some use even if it is only partially correct. Therefore,
before I do so it in the wastebasket I should like to take the liberty of asking a few questions about your proposed nucleic
acids structure which you may well have answers for, but for which answers are not apparent in your paper. These questions
are as follows:
No. 1 do the positions of the hydrogen atoms associated with the oxygens of the phosphate tetrahedra indicate that these hydrogens
would be difficult to replace by metals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, barium, etc.; by dye molecules (methyl green);
and by basic proteins (histones or protamines); or for that matter by ordinary proteins? It would seem to me that in reactions
involving replacement of the phosphate hydrogens by any of the above-mentioned substances (present in solution as cations),
the mighty difficulties if the cation replacing the hydrogen could not because of steric hindrance to close the oxygens of
the phosphate groups bearing the negative charges. If such steric hindrance should be appreciably president, bringing the
hydrogen ions which are present should still be attracted into positions close to the negatively charged oxygen atoms, and
it would seem to me that the net result would be to render the hydrogens very non-dissociable from the phosphate groups.
In view of these considerations, can you make your model work properly in exchange reactions involving the hydrogens of the
phosphate groups with other cations, and what work as well as Astbury or Furburg models?
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