Question

What are the factors that affect DNA structure? How will these factors affect the structure of the DNA isolate?

Answer 1

ANSWER -

there are various factors like temperature, pH, and concentrations of differnt levels may affect the structure of DNA

individually these factors affect the dna too

1) temperature.- on increasing the temmperature the double helix structure of dna breaks down. there is a critical temp after which the two strands of the dna breaks down ie completly unwind from each other, this unwinding occurs because of the weaking of the hydrogen bonds, the hydrogen bond slowly unwinds and thus lead to the breakdown of the dna

2) pH - on acidic ph, the ph which is less than 1, the rna and dna hydrogen bonds break off along with the phosphodiester backbone of the dna, while , when the ph is basic, ie more than 11, the rna hydrolyses but the dna remain intacct with the phosphodiester backbone.

3) concentration - in low salt concentration the dna will break down at lower salt concentration than that of higher salt concentration. this happens because the salt protects the negative charge of the phosphate and thus a greater temp is required to breakdown the dna when the salat concentration is more.

4) mutations caused by external factors - the damage of dna can be caused by the mutations caused by external agents like uv radiations and others. and the type of mutations can be of various type

these are few of the basic factors which affect the structure of dna