Chargaff's Ratio

Topic

Resource Type

Level

High School — General High School — AP/IB College

Duration

00:00:49

Saved By

9 Users

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Description

This animation describes the typical ratios of bases in DNA.

In 1950, biochemist Erwin Chargaff published a paper stating that in the DNA of any given species, the ratio of adenine to thymine is equal, as is the ratio of cytosine to guanine. This set of rules became known as Chargaff's ratio, and it was an important clue for solving the structure of DNA.

Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different features.

Key Terms

adenine, base pair, cytosine, DNA, double helix, guanine, nitrogenous base, nucleic acid, nucleotide, thymine

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.