Heteroduplex

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Heteroduplex with loops.

Under heteroduplex refers to a double (duplex, lat. Double) nucleic acid molecule that different from single strands (heteros, Greek. The other) origin composed. The single strands are held together by hydrogen bonds between complementary nucleobases . Sections in which the bases are not complementary to one another form loops. The single strands can be single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) or RNA that are hybridized with one another .

The accuracy of fit of the base pairing can be determined by enamel analysis of the double helix, because a heteroduplex becomes more unstable as the proportion of unpaired regions increases.

example

In order to determine whether a gene contains introns , one can hybridize it with its RNA transcript . Without introns an uninterrupted heteroduplex structure is formed, with introns the DNA strand forms the heteroduplex loops, since the spliced ​​RNA no longer contains introns and thus a complementary counterpart is missing.

Individual evidence

  1. Jochen Graw: Genetics, Molecular Basics of Inheritance, Springer, doi : 10.1007 / 3-540-29048-6_2

literature

  • BROWN, TA (1999): Modern Genetics, Spectrum Academic Publishing House.