Which Discovery Is Attributed To Phoebus Levene?

Which Discovery Is Attributed To Phoebus Levene?

1. A) Recognition of RNA as DNA’s messenger
2. B) Ribose and deoxyribose identification.
3. C) Extraction and observation of DNA
4. D) Construction of an accurate DNA model

Answer: B) Ribose and deoxyribose identification.

An important discovery of ribose and deoxyribose is attributed to Phoebus Levene who researched the composition of RNA and DNA. The major advancement came in 1929 when Levene recognized deoxyribose which is a five-carbon sugar that composes a part of the DNA structure. This finding was made after twenty years of undertaking research, during which Levene extracted nucleotides from ribose and later established that deoxyribose is obtained by removing an oxygen atom from ribose. This discovery was a key reveal inside the particles of genetic makeup of human beings and other living organisms though the importance of this discovery was not quite clear at first. His work also enables the discovery of nucleotides as the fundamental units of heredity material by Levene. He had presented a thought that DNA makeup was made of adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine in similar proportion to one another what is commonly called the tetranucleotide hypothesis. Although this hypothesis was proven wrong later, this theory enriched the knowledge about DNA structure. Levene’s findings engraved the distinctions in the molecular framework of the two sugars; while ribose has a hydroxyl group in the 2nd position, deoxyribose has a hydrogen atom in the same position. This distinction is quite important when the sugar becomes a part of either an RNA or DNA molecule. The findings of Levene paved way for the further advancements in genetics and molecular biology, to describe the basic elements of genetic material.