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Ch. 10 - DNA Structure and Analysis

Chapter 10, Problem 21

What is the physical state of DNA after it is heated and denatured?

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Hi, everyone. Let's take a look at this practice problems together. We have what happens when D N A is denatured. So D N A dina curation, it's going to be the process of breaking D N A down into two individual strands. And this is usually done by heating the D N A in labs. And so let's take a look at our options. We've got a, the hydrogen bonds between the two complementary strands break, be the phosphor di ester bonds that connect the nucleotides together in a single strand break. See the like acidic bonds that occur between each deoxyribonucleic sugar and a nitrogenous base break or D all of the above. So actually, from this, we can already tell that is going to be the answer because it's the only one that talks about breaking down two strands. But each of our answers refers to some bonds. And so let's go ahead and take a look at D N A and its structure and identify those bonds and look at where that hydrogen bond is as well. So here we've got our hydrogen bonds highlighted in yellow and those are connecting the nucleotides and it connects the two strands in the D N A, then we've got the phosphor digest or bond and those are part of the backbone of each strand. And then lastly, we've got the black acidic bonds and those are here between the nucleotide and the deoxyribonucleic sugar. And so it makes sense that A is the correct answer because if you target these hydrogen bonds, you're gonna be splitting the D N A in half. And so, breaking it into those two individual strands instead of the double helix. So again, a, the hydrogen bonds between the two complementary strands break is our answer. Alright, everyone, I hope you found this helpful and I'll see you for the next practice problem.