Desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a very large molecule that contains the genetic information. Proteins are produced according to the genetic code in which the DNA is written. The macromolecule consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphor, and nitrogen. James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of the DNA in 1953, in 1962 they received the nobel prize with Maurice Wilkins. The DNA has a spiral corded ladder structure, a so-called double helix, which consists of hundreds of thousands saccharine components (desoxyriboses) and phosphates, linked by atomic bonds within each single strand. The "rungs" consist of base pairs, two bases that are connected by hydrogen bridges that hold the two strands together in their helical shape and at a constant distance. The DNA contains four different organic bases: Adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, abbreviated: A, T, G, and C. A base pair is either adenine and thymine or guanine and cytosine.
