Similarly, whatever the amount of guanine (G), the amount of cytosine (C) is the same. The rules of base pairing explain the phenomenon that whatever the amount of adenine (A) in the DNA of an organism, the amount of thymine (T) is the same (called Chargaff's rule). In other words, adenine and thymine are complementary base. The rules of base pairing tell us that if we can "read" the sequence of nucleotides on one strand of DNA, we can immediately deduce the complementary sequence on the other strand. Base-pairing takes place between a purine and pyrimidine: namely, A pairs with T, and G pairs with C. These relationships are often called the rules of Watson-Crick base pairing, named after the two scientists who discovered their structural basis. The answer: only with A & T and with C & G are there opportunities to establish hydrogen bonds (shown here as dotted lines) between them (two between A & T three between C & G). This is consistent with there not being enough space (20 Å) for two purines to fit within the helix and too much space for two pyrimidines to get close enough to each other to form hydrogen bonds between them. C with G: the pyrimidine cytosine (C) always pairs with the purine guanine (G).A with T: the purine adenine (A) always pairs with the pyrimidine thymine (T).The rules of base pairing (or nucleotide pairing) are:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |