Question

Nucleic acid was first isolated from pus cells by
A. Friedrich Miescher
B. Altmann
C. Waldeyer
D. Hoffmeister

Answer 1

Nucleic acids are the bio polymers or large biomolecules that are essential to all known forms of life. The term nucleic acid is the overall name of DNA and RNA. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made up of three components, 5 carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. If the sugar is a compound ribose the polymer is known as RNA that is ribonucleic acid and if the sugar is derived from ribose as deoxyribose the polymer is known as DNA that is deoxyribonucleic acid.

Complete Answer:
- Nucleic acids were discovered in the year 1868, when 24 year old Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher isolated a new compound from the nuclear of white blood cells. This compound was neither a protein nor a lipid or carbohydrate, therefore it was a novel type of biological molecule.
- Friedrich Miescher, While working in the laboratory of felix hoppe-seyler at the university of Tübingen, Performed experiments on the chemical composition of leukocytes that leads to the discovery of DNA.
- In his experiments , he noticed the precipitate of an unknown Substance, which he characterized further its properties during the isolation procedure and its resistance to protease digestion indicate that the novel substance was not a protein or a lipid.
- Analysis of its elementary composition revealed that, unlike proteins, it contained large amounts of phosphorus and lacked sulphur.
- He recognized that he had discovered a novel molecule since he had isolated it from the cell's he named it nuclein, a name preserved in two days designation deoxyribonucleic acid.
- In subsequent work he showed that nuclein is a characteristic component of all nuclei and hypothesized that it would be proven to be inextricably linked to the function of this organelle.
- He suggested that its abundance in tissues might be related to their physiological status with increase in nuclear substance preceding cell division.

So, the correct answer is option A’.

Note: Friedrich Miescher even speculated that it might have a role in transmission of hereditary traits, but subsequently rejected the idea.