Many nucleotides linked together create a strand of DNA. One strand of DNA is

Question

bound to a second strand of DNA by _______ bonds. These two strands then
spiral around each other, forming the structure of DNA known as a
______________________.
f. It is often easier to draw DNA as if it were a ladder. The vertical uprights of the
ladder would include the _________________________ and the rungs of the
ladder, where you would place your foot if you were climbing the ladder, would
be the .
g. If you were to examine the structure of DNA in great detail, you would start to
notice a pattern of which DNA bases were connected, or how one strand of
DNA was bound to the second strand of DNA. Explain which bases always pair
together.
25 Phelan, What is Life, 5e, 2021,© W. H. Freeman and Company2-33

Answer 1

Many nucleotides linked together create a strand of DNA. One strand of DNA is bound to a second strand of DNA by hydrogen bonds. These two strands then spiral around each other, forming the structure of DNA known as a double helix.

f. It is often easier to draw DNA as if it were a ladder. The vertical uprights of the ladder would include the sugar-phosphate backbones, and the rungs of the ladder, where you would place your foot if you were climbing the ladder, would be the nitrogenous base pairs.

g. If you were to examine the structure of DNA in great detail, you would start to notice a pattern of which DNA bases were connected, or how one strand of DNA was bound to the second strand of DNA. The bases that always pair together are adenine (A) with thymine (T) and cytosine (C) with guanine (G).