Central Dogma of Molecular Genetics

Question

Assuming the presence of the complementary strand , what is the percentage composition of the polymer with respect to the A-T base pair and with respect to the C-G base pair?

2. In the given statement, illustrate and indicate the direction synthesis of

A.) a 5-nucleotide of RNA primer

B.) a  2 nucleotideof Okazaki fragment

Answer 1

Hi there!

To answer your first question, if the strands are complementary, there should be equal percentages of A and T, and equal percentages of C and G. All together, A-T% + C-G% should equal 100%. Without knowing the percent of at least one of these base pairs, it is not possible to calculate the actual percentage of each.

Regarding your second question, synthesis on the RNA primer occurs in a 5' --> 3' direction (the leading strand).

Synthesis on an Okazaki fragment occurs in the 3' --> 5' direction (the lagging strand).