Explain why a polynucleotide strand has a natural coil to it and why the complementary strands must be anti-parallel?
The natural coil is present because of hydrogen bonding between adjacent nucleotides.
As we know that there are two types of bases-
purines and pyrimidines.
Purine- Adenine, Guanine
Pyrimidine- Thymine and Cytosine.
According to watson and crick bonding....
Purine pairs with pyrimidine.
A=T
G C. There are two hydrogen bonds between A & T. Three hydrogen bonds between G&C.
I am attaching an image.. this will make it clear that to make hydrogen bonding the strands have to be in antiparallel direction.
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