Scientists discover that water holds the DNA double helix together.

[wellwisher]

Water is the most studied substance in all science. The research still continues, because water is also the most anomalous substance found in nature. Anomalies are where water bucks the trends found in most other materials. For example, water expands when it freezes, which is not the norm for the majority of materials. Hot water will freeze before cold water, which is also not normal in nature, but occurs with water. These can all be explain by the hydrogen bonding of water.

Water brings its anomalous behavior, to the living state, helping to create something that can differ from the inanimate nature of the majority of physical reality; rocks. Water is not easily replaceable by other solvents. DNA will not do the same things with any other solvents. Rather DNA depends on the unique behavior of water to make it useful for long term storage and template capabilities.

If we start with a single water molecule; H2O, we have two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a single oxygen atom. The two -OH bonds are very strong, stronger than any carbon-hydrogen single bond.

However, when we have these sturdy water molecules in the liquid state, the strong covalent -OH bonds are no longer permanent, but rather the hydrogen protons can move, more or less, freely within the oxygen continuum moving from molecule to molecule. This is driven by the second law; increased complexity. The liquid state of water has another layer of local and bulk hydrogen proton and electron activity on top of its base covalent bonded nature.

Oxygen plays major role in this since oxygen is very electronegative and would like to gain electrons to complete its octet of electrons, so it can take advantage of electron magnetic addition in 3-D; nature of P-orbitals. This magnetic attraction of the octet of electrons, right hand rule in 3-D, can overcome the charge repulsion of oxygen having 2 extra electrons, then it has protons in its nucleus. There is a competition within the EM force fields of oxygen, between the charge repulsion and the magnetic attraction. The hydrogen protons float on these EM field fluctuations; surfing on the waves. This completion also makes hydrogen bonds binary switches, as the electron fields move between the E and M fields of the EM force. The EM force is one force, but water has a way to isolate the two halves of the EM force to form form binary switches; E or M; polar or covalent.

DNA is built to be sturdy and not changing in terms of its covalent bonds. Single H2O molecules look like that on paper, until hydrogen bonding appears in the liquid state, and then water becomes very pliable via its enhanced hydrogen proton and oxygen based electron E plus M dual probability field. The sturdy DNA is placed in this field when it interacts with water. Now it is powered up ready for action.

 

[JIMMY12345]

Scientists have determined the water and not the hydrogen bonding between base pairs is what holds the DNA double helix together. This totally changes the way we should conceptually approach DNA. It also makes most textbook pictures of the DNA double helix obsolete, since these old picture ignore the water which is critical to the double helix structure. Those old pictures are now fake science. I have been warning this for years.

An overview of this provocative discovery can be read at the India Times at; DNA’s double helix is held together by water - Times of India

The actual published science paper can be found at; https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1909122116

In simple terms, it was widely believed since the discovery of DNA, that the DNA double helix was held together by the hydrogen bonds between the base pairs within the DNA double helix. More recent discoveries showed that the DNA double helix was not the only double helix in DNA. The DNA also contained a double helix of water in the major and minor grooves of the double helix. This is in the article below from 2017, with the earliest clues in reference #3, dating back to 1992.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.7b00229

The more recent team who overcame a dogma of science; earth is not flat, was able to show the base pairs are actually forced to stack onto each other, like coins, due to hydrophobic affects between the bases and the inner water. The affect is similar to mixing some oil into water. The oil will want to bead up to separate from the water and lower the surface tension.

In the case of the DNA, the base pairs are like oil and the inner water causes them to bead up and stack. This causes the beads of oil; stacked base pairs to become dry; pure oil, allowing the hydrogen bonding to become more efficient.. The hydrogen bonding is more of an affect of the hydrophobic action of the water, than the cause of the double helix.

Water has it finger in every pie within life. I hope the powers to be change the DNA pictures in textbooks so students can ask the right questions and not get stuck in misinformation based reasoning. But then again the double helix of water in DNA has been known since 1992 and if you mention it, you can get gang tackled or censored at science sites What is up with that? Why isn't that better known and taught?

Rosalind Franklin who is famous for her contribution to the DNA structure had problems with X ray crystallography of her "wet" specimens.She sadly was overlooked for part of the Noble prize awarded to Watson and Crick.

 

[wellwisher]

Rosalind Franklin who is famous for her contribution to the DNA structure had problems with X ray crystallography of her "wet" specimens.She sadly was overlooked for part of the Noble prize awarded to Watson and Crick.

The water makes it harder to get a static picture of the DNA, since the water gives the DNA, the dynamic character needed for life. The tools were not there yet, to see the significance of her experimental problem. The 1950's took the wrong direction. DNA without water is a crystal figurine and not a living and dynamic template.