Spontaneous deamination of cytosine bases in DNA takes place at low but measurable frequency. Cytosine is converted into uracil by loss of its amino group. After this conversion, which base pair occupies this position in each of the daughter strands resulting from one round of replication? Two rounds of replication? (a) How many different 8-mer sequences of DNA are there? (Hint: There are 16 possible dinucleotides and 64 possible trinucleotides.) We can quantify the information- carrying capacity of nucleic acids in the following way. Each position can be one of four bases, corresponding to two bits of information (2² = 4). Thus, a chain of 5100 nucleotides corresponds to 2 × 5100 = 10,200 bits, or 1275 bytes (1 byte =8 bits). (b) How many bits of information are stored in an 8-mer DNA sequence? In the E. coli genome? In the human genome? (c) Compare each of these values with the amount of information that can be stored on a computer compact disc, or CD (about 700 megabytes).
Spontaneous deamination of cytosine bases in DNA takes place at low but measurable frequency. Cytosine is converted into uracil by loss of its amino group. After this conversion, which base pair occupies this position in each of the daughter strands resulting from one round of replication? Two rounds of replication? (a) How many different 8-mer sequences of DNA are there? (Hint: There are 16 possible dinucleotides and 64 possible trinucleotides.) We can quantify the information-
Trending now
This is a popular solution!
Step by step
Solved in 2 steps
