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pivoxa15
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What would a mole of mammal DNA look like? Smell like? Feel like?
How about a mole of plant DNA?
How about a mole of plant DNA?
tandoorichicken said:To have a mole of something you need a finite number of regular molecules. 6.022*10^23 to be exact. DNA comes in long chains or little snippets, and depending on its nucleotide makeup would come in different molecular weights even if it was of uniform length. So I don't know if you can even have a 'mole of DNA' in the general sense.
chroot said:When it's extracted from cells in preparation for sequencing or PCR, it looks a lot like, well, snot.
- Warren
chroot said:pivoxa,
DNA is molecule with variable length. Some pieces of DNA are quite long, while some can be quite short. Thus, it makes no sense to talk about "a dozen DNA," nor does it make sense to talk about "a mole of DNA."
Either way, your question is just asking about the physical qualities of a large amount of pure DNA, and doesn't really depend on the interpretation of the word "mole."
- Warren
pivoxa15 said:So just say in a human, you say there are many different types of DNA? Is that because there are 23 pairs of different chromosomes and the DNA in them are different? Are all these different types present in the zygote cell? How many different types are there?
Isn't snot green by definition?chroot said:It's a cloudy whitish color.
- Warren
Only if you've got a cold, I think.arildno said:Isn't snot green by definition?
Not really. At other times, thiough, I would call it "icky-stuff-from-the-nose", rather than "snot".jim mcnamara said:"green" means sinusitis. arildno - do you have some kind of perennial infection?
chroot said:When it's extracted from cells in preparation for sequencing or PCR, it looks a lot like, well, snot.
Maybe dried snot. If there are no salts or proteins contaminating the preparation, it's actually darned hard to see when completely isolated. Usually just a clear-ish speck on the bottom of the tube that you can only be sure is there when you start reconstituting it with water and see where the water flow changes (in the 10-100 microgram range...how many moles would depend on the size of the DNA strand, which varies with species, but a LOT). Salts in your preparation will leave the pellet looking a bit cloudier...easier to see, but not pure (and then the folks that do the sequencing for you yell at you and send it back to be purified better :grumpy:).chroot said:When it's extracted from cells in preparation for sequencing or PCR, it looks a lot like, well, snot.
- Warren
That is after you have spun it down. When you lyse cells and the DNA is released, you get very long snotty fibers of DNA. Samples of genomic DNA that have a high concentration can be hard to pipet because of the snotty nature of the sample.Moonbear said:Maybe dried snot. If there are no salts or proteins contaminating the preparation, it's actually darned hard to see when completely isolated. Usually just a clear-ish speck on the bottom of the tube that you can only be sure is there when you start reconstituting it with water and see where the water flow changes (in the 10-100 microgram range...how many moles would depend on the size of the DNA strand, which varies with species, but a LOT). Salts in your preparation will leave the pellet looking a bit cloudier...easier to see, but not pure (and then the folks that do the sequencing for you yell at you and send it back to be purified better :grumpy:).
Oops, I realized that I've only dealt with plasmid DNA (to ultimately use as templates for making probes for in situ hybridization), and throw away the snotty genomic DNA in everything I do, so forgot about what that part looks like; I have better recollection of those stubborn pellets.Monique said:That is after you have spun it down. When you lyse cells and the DNA is released, you get very long snotty fibers of DNA. Samples of genomic DNA that have a high concentration can be hard to pipet because of the snotty nature of the sample.
tandoorichicken said:I'm really digging our highly intellectual discussions of snot. :rofl:
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a molecule that carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth, and reproduction of all living organisms. It is essential for life as it contains the information needed for an organism to grow, survive, and reproduce.
DNA has a double helix structure, meaning it has two strands that twist around each other like a ladder. The sides of the ladder are made up of sugar and phosphate molecules, while the rungs are made of pairs of nitrogenous bases (adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine).
No, DNA is too small to be seen with the naked eye. It is typically only 2 nanometers wide, which is about 1/50,000th the width of a human hair. It can only be seen with powerful microscopes.
No, DNA can vary in appearance depending on the organism it is found in. While the basic structure is the same, the sequence of the nitrogenous bases can differ, giving each organism its unique genetic code.
In most organisms, DNA is organized into chromosomes, which are long strands of DNA wrapped around proteins. These chromosomes can be found in the nucleus of the cell. In some organisms, such as bacteria, DNA is found in a circular form in the cytoplasm.