Freshman Seminar: Structural Basis of Genetic Material: Nucleic Acids

Readings

SES #	Topics	READINGS
The Structure of Genetic Material
1	RNA	Crick, F. H. C. “Nucleic Acids.” Scientific American 197 (1957): 188-200. Darnell, James E., Jr. “RNA.” Scientific American 253 (1985): 68-782. Hurwitz, Jerard, and J. J. Furth. “Messenger RNA.” Sceintific American 206 (1962): 41-49.
2	DNA	Watson, James D. “Looking forward.” Gene 135 (1993): 309-315. Crick, Francis. “Looking backwards: a birthday card for the double helix.” Gene 135 (1993): 15-18. Dickerson, Richard E. “The DNA Helix and How It Is Read.” Scientific American 249 (1983): 94-111.
How DNA is Packaged?
3	Supercoiled DNA	Bauer, William R., F. H. C. Crick, and James H. White. “Supercoiled DNA.” Scientific American 243 (1980): 118-133.
4	Nucleosome	Kornberg, Roger D., and Aaron Klug. “The Nucleosome.” Scientific American 244 (1981): 52-64.
How Information is Transferred?
5	Genetic Code I	Crick, F. H. C. “The Genetic Code.” Scientific American 207 (1962): 66-74.
6	Genetic Code II and III	Nirenberg, Marshall W. “The Genetic Code II.” Scientific American 208 (1963): 80-94. Crick, F. H. C. “The Genetic Code III.” Scientific American 215 (1966): 55-60.
7	Polyribosome	Rich, Alexander. “Polyribosomes.” Scientific American 209 (1963): 44-53.
8	The Three-Dimensional Structure of tRNA	Rich, Alexander, and Sung Hou Kim. “The Three-dimensional Structure of Transfer RNA.” Scientific American 238 (1978): 52-62.
9	Reverse Transcription	Varmus, Harold. “Reverse Transcription.” Scientific American 257 (1987): 56-59, 62-64.
10	RNA as an Enzyme	Cech, Thomas R. “RNA as an Enzyme.” Scientific American 255 (1986): 64-75.