Written by Yvette Tran
What is the correlation between nucleotide content and melting temperature?
a. Higher G:C; higher temperature
b. Higher G:C; lower temperature
c. Higher A:T; lower temperature
d. Lower A:T; higher temperature
a. Higher G:C; higher temperature
b. Higher G:C; lower temperature
c. Higher A:T; lower temperature
d. Lower A:T; higher temperature
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Explanation: The answer is A. A larger presence of C’s and G’s present within a nucleotide sequence results in a higher melting temperature as 3 hydrogen bonds must be broken as opposed to the 2 hydrogen bonds in the A and T pairing. This also accounts for the reason why annealing and denaturation of two strands generally occurs in areas rich in AT nucleotides as it has a lower melting temperature in this region.