Skip to main content
added 581 characters in body
Source Link
tel
  • 3.8k
  • 22
  • 32

Pitch is not a great word for this, as its meaning is ambiguous. It's hard to find a universal nomenclature for DNA geometry, but see the "Base pair geometry" section of this wikipedia page. The relevant property is what they call "opening".

From the biochemistry textbook by Berg:

enter image description here

To explain in words, if the glycosidic bonds (which attach the nucleic base to the sugar in the backbone) stuck straight out at 90 angles on both sides, then the grooves in double-stranded DNA would be symmetrical. Because the glycosidic bonds are at an angle (relative to the interface between the AT or GC pairs), one of the "faces" of the base pair is larger than the other.

Really this is the kind of thing that you'reWords and flat pictures, however, will never going to understand intuitively withoutreally give you a good intuitive sense of what's going on with the 3D structure of the grooves. A good modeling kit will be of great help to you.

From the biochemistry textbook by Berg:

enter image description here

To explain in words, if the glycosidic bonds (which attach the nucleic base to the sugar in the backbone) stuck straight out at 90 angles on both sides, then the grooves in double-stranded DNA would be symmetrical. Because the glycosidic bonds are at an angle (relative to the interface between the AT or GC pairs), one of the "faces" of the base pair is larger than the other.

Really this is the kind of thing that you're never going to understand intuitively without a good modeling kit.

Pitch is not a great word for this, as its meaning is ambiguous. It's hard to find a universal nomenclature for DNA geometry, but see the "Base pair geometry" section of this wikipedia page. The relevant property is what they call "opening".

From the biochemistry textbook by Berg:

enter image description here

To explain in words, if the glycosidic bonds (which attach the nucleic base to the sugar in the backbone) stuck straight out at 90 angles on both sides, then the grooves in double-stranded DNA would be symmetrical. Because the glycosidic bonds are at an angle (relative to the interface between the AT or GC pairs), one of the "faces" of the base pair is larger than the other.

Words and flat pictures, however, will never really give you a good intuitive sense of what's going on with the 3D structure of the grooves. A good modeling kit will be of great help to you.

added 581 characters in body
Source Link
tel
  • 3.8k
  • 22
  • 32

From the biochemistry textbook by Berg:   

enter image description here

To explain in words, if the glycosidic bonds (which attach the nucleic base to the sugar in the backbone) stuck straight out at 90 angles on both sides, then the grooves in double-stranded DNA would be symmetrical. Because the glycosidic bonds are at an angle (relative to the interface between the AT or GC pairs), one of the "faces" of the base pair is larger than the other.

Really this is the kind of thing that you're never going to understand intuitively without a good modeling kit.

From the biochemistry textbook by Berg:  enter image description here

From the biochemistry textbook by Berg: 

enter image description here

To explain in words, if the glycosidic bonds (which attach the nucleic base to the sugar in the backbone) stuck straight out at 90 angles on both sides, then the grooves in double-stranded DNA would be symmetrical. Because the glycosidic bonds are at an angle (relative to the interface between the AT or GC pairs), one of the "faces" of the base pair is larger than the other.

Really this is the kind of thing that you're never going to understand intuitively without a good modeling kit.

Source Link
tel
  • 3.8k
  • 22
  • 32

From the biochemistry textbook by Berg: enter image description here