noun
Usage: usually capitalized W&C
Etymology: after James D. Watson b 1928 American biologist and Francis H.C. Crick b 1916 English biologist
: a model of DNA structure in which the molecule is a cross-linked double-stranded helix, each strand is composed of alternating links of phosphate and deoxyribose, and the strands are cross-linked by pairs of purine and pyrimidine bases projecting inward from the deoxyribose sugars and joined by hydrogen bonds with adenine paired with thymine and with cytosine paired with guanine — compare double helix herein