Chapter3NucleicAcid1
PhysicalandchemicalstructureofDNA•Double-strandedhelix•Majorgrooveandminorgroove•Basepairing•Thetwostrandsareantiparallel•G+Ccontent(percentG+C)•SatelliteDNASatelliteDNAconsistsofhighlyrepetitiveDNAandissocalledbecauserepetitionsofashortDNAsequencetendtoproduceadifferentfrequencyofthenucleotidesadenine,cytosine,guanineandthymine,andthushaveadifferentdensityfrombulkDNA-suchthattheyformasecondor'satellite'bandwhengenomicDNAisseparatedonadensitygradient
AlternateDNAstructureTwobaseshavebeenextrudedfrombasestackingatthejunction
Thewhitelinegoesfromphosphatetophosphatealongthechain
Oisshownred,Nblue,PyellowandCgrey
CircularandsuperhelicalDNADNAcanalsoformadouble-stranded,covalently-closedcircle
Thesecircularmoleculesareoftencoiledintoasuperhelix,theformationof