Question

In a 68 nm long B-DNA molecule, adenine constitutes 25%, how many hydrogen bonds would be present between the strands

Answer 1

Answer:

I get  

40

hydrogen bonds.

Explanation:

Well, let's say that  

30

%

of adenine is present, and so there will be

68

 

nm

⋅

30

%

=

20.4

 

nm

≈

20

 

nm

of adenine bonds

Assuming each adenine bond takes up  

1

 

nm

, then we have the following.

Adenine always pairs up with guanine in  

DNA

bonding, as each of them have exactly  

2

places to hydrogen bond with each other.

So, there will be a total of  

2

⋅

20

=

40

hydrogen bonds in this segment.