Question

The melting temperature of DNA is characteristic of the sequence of the DNA that is being...

The melting temperature of DNA is characteristic of the sequence of the DNA that is being melted. What can a melting curve tell you about the composition of bases within DNA? Explain how a melting curve is made, and what contributes to the relationship between temperature and DNA composition and sequence.

Homework Answers

Answer #1

Melting temperature of DNA is the temperature at which 50% of double stranded DNA converts to single stranded DNA.

The melting curve is made by plotting a graph between temperature (at X-axis) and fraction of single stranded DNA (at Y-axis).

It gives a sigmoid shaped curve.

As the curve shifts to the right which means that the DNA melts at a higher temperature which in turns means that the force holding the two strands of DNA is greater which means that there are more G-C base pairs in the DNA.

G-C basepairs provide more stability to the DNA than the A-T basepairs because there is a tripple bond between guanine and cytosine whereas there is a double bond between the adenine and thiamine.

So more the G-C base pairs more the melting temperature of DNA and hence more shifting of melting curve towrds right side.

The picture below shows a rought sketch of melting curve.

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