Photo 51

Photo 51 is an X-ray diffraction image of a paracristalline gel composed of DNA fiber [1] taken by Raymond Gosling,[2][3] a graduate student working under the supervision of Rosalind Franklin in May 1952 at King's College London, while working in Sir John Randall's group.[4][5][6][7] The image was tagged "photo 51" because it was the 51st diffraction photograph that Franklin and Gosling had taken.[8] It was critical evidence[9] in identifying the structure of DNA.[10]

This article is about the historic DNA X-ray diffraction image. For the play by Anna Ziegler, see Photograph 51 (play).
Photo 51, showing x-ray diffraction pattern of DNA
Double helix

Use in discovering structure of DNA

James Watson was shown the photo by his collaborator, Maurice Wilkins, as Raymond Gosling, the author of the picture, had returned under his supervision. Rosalind Franklin did not know this at the time because she was leaving King's College London. Randall, the head of the group, had asked Gosling to share all his data with Wilkins.[11] Along with Francis Crick, Watson used characteristics and features of Photo 51, together with evidence from multiple other sources, to develop the chemical model of the DNA molecule. Their model, and manuscripts by Wilkins and colleagues, and Gosling and Franklin, were first published, together, in 1953, in the same issue of Nature. In 1962, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Watson, Crick and Wilkins. The prize was not awarded to Franklin; she had died four years earlier, and although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards[12], the Nobel Committee generally does not make posthumous nominations.[13] Likewise, Gosling's work was not cited by the prize committee.

The photograph provided key information that was essential for developing a model of DNA.[10][14] The diffraction pattern determined the helical nature of the double helix strands (antiparallel). The outside of the DNA chain has a backbone of alternating deoxyribose and phosphate moieties, and the base pairs, the order of which provides codes for protein building and thereby inheritance, are inside the helix. Watson and Crick's calculations from Gosling and Franklin's photography gave crucial parameters for the size and structure of the helix.[14]

Photo 51 became a crucial data source[15] that led to the development of the DNA model and confirmed the prior postulated double helical structure of DNA, which were presented in the series of three articles in the journal Nature in 1953.

As historians of science have re-examined the period during which this image was obtained, considerable controversy has arisen over both the significance of the contribution of this image to the work of Watson and Crick, as well as the methods by which they obtained the image. Franklin had been hired independently of Maurice Wilkins, who, taking over as Gosling's new supervisor, showed Photo 51 to Watson and Crick without Franklin's knowledge. Whether Franklin would have deduced the structure of DNA on her own, from her own data, had Watson and Crick not obtained Gosling's image, is a hotly debated topic,[10][14][16][17] made more controversial by the negative caricature of Franklin presented in the early chapters of Watson's history of the research on DNA structure, The Double Helix.[14][18][19] Watson admitted his distortion of Franklin in his book, noting in the epilogue: "Since my initial impressions about [Franklin], both scientific and personal (as recorded in the early pages of this book) were often wrong, I want to say something here about her achievements."[20]

Cultural references
  • A 56-minute documentary DNA - Secret of Photo 51, was broadcast in 2003 on PBS NOVA.[6] Narrated by Barbara Flynn, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Aaron Klug, Brenda Maddox,[21] including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley.[22] The UK version produced by BBC is titled Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady.[23]
  • The first episode of a PBS documentary serial, DNA, which aired on 4 January 2004[24] as "The Secret of Life", centres on and features the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).[25]
  • A play entitled Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler focuses on the role of x-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin in the discovery of the structure of DNA.[26][27] This play won the 3rd STAGE International Script Competition in 2008.[28] In 2015, the play was put on at London West End, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin.[29]
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References
  1. Franklin, R. E.; Gosling, R. G. (1953-09-10). "The structure of sodium thymonucleate fibres. I. The influence of water content". Acta Crystallographica. 6 (8): 673–677. doi:10.1107/S0365110X53001939.
  2. "Due credit". Nature. 496 (7445): 270. 18 April 2013. doi:10.1038/496270a. PMID 23607133.
  3. Witkowski J (2019). "The forgotten scientists who paved the way to the double helix". Nature. 568 (7752): 308–309. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01176-9.
  4. Attar, N (2013). "Raymond Gosling: the man who crystallized genes". Genome Biology. 14 (4): 402. doi:10.1186/gb-2013-14-4-402. PMC 3663117. PMID 23651528.
  5. "DNA: the King's story". Archived from the original on 2013-02-07. Retrieved 2013-02-15.
  6. "Secret of Photo 51. Nova". PBS. Archived from the original on 2017-08-31. Retrieved 2017-09-08.
  7. The gene: a historical perspective. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2007. p. 85. ISBN 9780313334498. PHOTO 51 rosalind franklin.
  8. "PastCast: The other DNA papers". 26 April 2019. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2019. Raymond Gosling: 'And the best structure B pattern we ever got is photo 51, which I took and was called 51 because that was the 51st photograph that we’d taken, Rosalind and I, in our efforts to sort out this A and B difference'.
  9. Krock, Lexi (22 April 2003). "Anatomy of Photo 51". NOVA online. PBS. Archived from the original on 29 July 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  10. Watson, James D.; Crick, Francis (1953). "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" (PDF). Nature. 171 (4356): 737–738. Bibcode:1953Natur.171..737W. doi:10.1038/171737a0. PMID 13054692. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-04-03.
  11. Williams, Gareth (2019). Unravelling the Double Helix. New York: Pegasus Books. pp. 264–267. ISBN 978-1-64313-215-0.
  12. "Nobel Prize Facts". Official Website of the Nobel Prizes. Archived from the original on 8 July 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  13. "My aunt, the DNA pioneer". BBC News. 24 April 2003. Archived from the original on 28 August 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  14. Maddox, Brenda (2002). Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-393-32044-2.
  15. "The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race." -- James D. Watson (1968), The Double Helix, page 167. New York: Atheneum, Library of Congress card number 68-16217. Page 168 shows the X-shaped pattern of the B-form of DNA which provided details of the helical structure of DNA to both scientists Watson and Crick.
  16. Max Perutz and the Secret of Life. Published in the UK by Chatto & Windus (ISBN 0-7011-7695-4), and in the USA by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
  17. Wilkins; Wilkins, M. (2003). The Third Man of the Double Helix, an autobiography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  18. Watson, James D. (1980). The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (1968). Atheneum. ISBN 978-0-689-70602-8.
  19. Sayre, Anne (1975). Rosalind Franklin and DNA. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. ISBN 978-0-393-32044-2.
  20. Watson, James D. Gunther Stent (ed.). The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (1980 Norton Critical ed.). W.W. Norton and Company. ISBN 978-0-393-95075-5.
  21. "NOVA: DNA - Secret of Photo 51 (2003)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  22. "Secret of Photo 51 Transcript". PBS. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  23. "Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady (2003) (TV)". MoviesPictures.ORG. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  24. "Season 1, Episode 1 The Secret of Life". TVGUIDE. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  25. "Episode 1: The Secret of Life". PBS. Archived from the original on 30 December 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  26. Kuchment, Anna (January 2011), "For Whom the Nobel Tolls: An evening out with James Watson and colleagues", Scientific American, Nature America, 304 (1), p. 27, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0111-27
  27. Cox, Gordon (April 23, 2015). "Nicole Kidman to Star on West End in 'Photograph 51'". Variety. Archived from the original on 8 September 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  28. "Ziegler's Photograph 51 Wins STAGE International Script Competition". American Theater Web News. August 5, 2008. Archived from the original on 2015-09-27. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  29. Porteous, Jacob (24 April 2015). "Nicole Kidman Returns To The West End In Photograph 51". London Theatre Direct. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.

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