bio valium

Speed of DNA Replication
The Genome of complex eukaryotes is huge and the process of DNA Replication should be incredibly fast. It is amazing that a Chromosome of 250 million pair of bases can be replicated in several hours. The speed of DNA replication for the humans is about 50 nucleotides per second per replication fork (low speed comparing to the speed of the bacterial DNA Replication).But the human Genome can be copied only in a few hours because because many replication forks take place at the some time (multiple initiation sites)

The DNA Double Helix makes a complete turn in over 10 nucleotide pairs, so each turn takes 35.7 ?. About 25 hydrogen bonds are created in this complete turn. The power of these 25 bonds is equal to 1 covalent bond (bond between carbon and oxygen). The diameter of a DNA Double Helix is 20 ?. The length of the helix can be 2 cm (!!) if the helix is fully stretched.

DNA Double Helix


The hydrogen bonds and the bonds between deoxyribose and phosphates are the main (but not only) chemical forces that create a DNA Double helix (pic.2).