Content deleted Content added
SandyGeorgia (talk | contribs) →Different views on the mechanism of evolution: mising word? punctuation change? Random Replicator, pls double check this and rv if needed |
SandyGeorgia (talk | contribs) |
||
Line 52:
The missing information necessary to help explain the emergence of new traits in offspring was provided by the pioneering [[genetics]] work of [[Gregor Mendel]]. Mendel’s experiments with several generations of pea plants demonstrated that heredity works by reshuffling the hereditary information during the formation of sex cells and recombining that information during fertilization. Mendel referred to the information as factors; however, they later became known as [[genes]]. Genes are the basic units of heredity in living organisms. They contain the biological information that directs the physical development and behavior of organisms.
Genes are composed of [[DNA]], a long [[molecule]] that has the form of a "[[double helix]]". It resembles a ladder that has been twisted. Each rung of the ladder is formed by two chemicals called [[nucleotides]]. There are four types of nucleotides which are called
[[Image:JamesDWatson.jpg|thumb|left|[[James Watson]], co-discoverer of the structure of [[DNA]]]]
In 1953, [[James Watson]] and [[Francis Crick]] contributed to one of the most important breakthroughs in biological science when they described how the nucleotide "letters" in double helical DNA naturally form pairs. Nucleotide
|author=Watson JD, Crick FH
|title=Molecular structure of nucleic acids; a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid
| |||