complimentary base pairing
hydrogen bonding between particular bases; in DNA, thymine (T) pairs with adenine (A), and guanine (G) pairs with cytosine (C)
Complimentary base pairing is a term used in molecular biology to describe the specific pairing of the nitrogenous bases in DNA molecules. These nitrogenous bases are the building blocks of DNA, and there are four of them: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T).
The base pairs in DNA are A-T and C-G. This means that adenine will always pair with thymine and guanine will always pair with cytosine. The base pairs are held together by hydrogen bonds.
The significance of complimentary base pairing is that it ensures that the genetic information stored in DNA is accurately and faithfully transmitted from one generation to the next. During DNA replication, the two strands of the double helix unwind and each strand serves as a template for the synthesis of a new complementary strand. The base pairing ensures that the new strand is a faithful copy of the original strand.
Complimentary base pairing is also important for the process of transcription, where a stretch of DNA is copied into a complementary RNA molecule that carries the genetic information from the DNA to the ribosomes for protein synthesis. The base pairing allows the RNA polymerase enzyme to pair the correct RNA nucleotides to the DNA template to produce the complementary RNA strand.
Overall, complimentary base pairing is a key concept in understanding the structure and function of DNA, and it underlies many important biological processes.
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