In dna molecules, complementary base pairs always include one purine nucleotide and one pyrimidine nucleotide. in the dna of certain bacterial cells, 16% of the nucleotides are adenine nucleotides. what are the percentages of the other nucleotides in the bacterial dna?

Question

Biology

Rachel Weber

8 May, 23:00

In dna molecules, complementary base pairs always include one purine nucleotide and one pyrimidine nucleotide. in the dna of certain bacterial cells, 16% of the nucleotides are adenine nucleotides. what are the percentages of the other nucleotides in the bacterial dna?

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Melissa Brown · Answer 1

Well if there are 16% percent adenine, there has to be a complementary 16% thymine.

This makes up 32% of the bacterial DNA out of the 100%. So to find out the percentages for guanine and cytosine, let's subtract 32 from 100.

100-32 = 68% guanine and cytosine.

Since these two are complementary as well, divide 68 by 2 to find the percentages for both guanine and cytosine.

68/2 = 34%

So, in total, there are 16% adenine, 16% thymine, 34% guanine, and 34% cytosine.