In: Chemistry
Consider a benchtop synthesis reaction for a segment of DNA consisting of a helical arrangement of 14 nucleotides. (7 in each strand). The balanced chemical reaction for this hypothetical synthesis is given below.
If you allow 546.2 g of thymine, 456.7 g of adenine, 420.2 g of guanine and 514.6 g of cytosine to react in excess d-ribose and excess H3PO4, what mass of DNA may theoretically be produced?
Question 2 : The human body is said to contain approximately 50.0 grams of DNA in the entire body. If the number of nucleotides in ONE STRAND of DNA is approximately 3.0 x 106, and the average molar mass of a nucleotide is 327 g/mol, what is the average molar mass of an entire DNA double helix?
Question 3 : The total mass of DNA in the body is 50.0 g. If the number of nucleotides in ONE STRAND of DNA is approximately 3.0 x 106, and the average length of a single nucleotide is 0.34 nm, what is the length (in km) of one strand of DNA when it is stretched out to its maximum length (not in a helix)?
Question 4 : Using the average molar mass of a DNA double helix that you calculated in Question 2, what is the molarity of DNA in the human blood system. For the volume of blood, use the average volume of all the blood in a human body which is 4700 mL.
Ans
1.
2.
One strand of DNA has 3 x 106 nucleotides
Mass of each nucleotide is 327 g/mol
SO mass of one strand of DNA is
3 x 106 x 327 = 9.81 x 108 g/mol
SO the double helix will be 2 x 9.81 x 108 g/mol = 1.96 x 109 g/mol
This is the average molar mass of an entire DNA double helix.
3.
Given-
The average length of a single nucleotide = 0.34 nm
The number of nucleotides in ONE STRAND of DNA is approximately = 3.0 x106
Length of one strand of DNA when it is stretched out to its maximum length = 0.34 nm x 3.0 x106
= 1.02 x 106 nm
1 nm = 10^-12Km
So, 1.02 x 10^6 nm = 1.02 x 10^6 x 10^-12Km = 1.02 x 10^-6Km
The length one strand of DNA when it is stretched out to its maximum length = 1.02 x 10^-6Km.
4.
To calculte molarity in this question, we have to calculate the number of moles of DNA in the body, which is equal to the number of grams of DNA divided by the DNA's molar mass:
50 grams of DNA/1.98x109 g/mol = 2.52x10-8 moles
And then, calculate the molarity with this formula: m = # moles/ liters of solution
molarity = (2.52x10-8 moles) / 4.7 Liters = 5.37 x 10-09 M
Have a nice day friends.