Q. 17.102 - An Introduction to General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry

Question

 If the DNA double helix in humans contains $20\%$ cytosine, what is the percentage of guanine, adenine, and thymine?

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

Percentage of guanine, adenine, and thymine are $20\%, 30\%, 30\%$

Step 1 : Given information

We need to find percentage of guanine, adenine, and thymine .

Step 2 : Simplify

The percentage of cytosine  in DNA will be the same as that of guanine
As a result, the percentage of guanine in salmon DNA is $20$ percent.
Because salmon DNA has $20\%$cytosine and , $20\%$ guanine and , the remaining $60\%$ will include exclusively adenine pairings with thymine.
As a result, adenine and thymine will have the same amount in salmon DNA, i.e. $30\%$ percent each.
Therefore, $20\% , 30\%, 30\%$ are percentage of guanine, adenine, and thymine