structural:expansion, quality:correction, structural:summarization
History

Nucleic acid was, partially, first discovered by Friedrich Miescher in 1869 at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He discovered a new substance, which he called nuclein and which - depending on how his results are interpreted in detail - can be seen in modern terms either as a nucleid acid- histone complex or as the actual nucleid acid. Phoeber Aaron Theodor Levene, an American biochemist determined the basic structure of nucleic acids. In the early 1880s, Albrecht Kossel further purified the nucleid acid substance and discovered its highly acidic properties. He later also identified the nucleobases.In 1889 Richard Altmann created the term nucleic acid – at that time DNA and RNA were not differentiated. In 1938 Astbury and Bell published the first X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA.

In 1944 the Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment showed that DNA is the carrier of genetic information and in 1953 Watson and Crick proposed the double-helix structure of DNA.

Experimental studies of nucleic acids constitute a major part of modern biological and medical research, and form a foundation for genome and forensic science, and the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.