Question

during your summer job at the blue bell ice cream plant and laboratory in brenham, you isolate a previously unknown virus. analysis of its genome reveals that it is composed of a double stranded dna molecule containing 14% t (thymine). based on this information, whay would you predict the % c (cytosine) to be.

Answer 1

Based on the student's discovery of a virus with 14% thymine and Chargaff's rules, the percentage of cytosine in the virus's DNA can be predicted to be 36%.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student has isolated a virus with a genome containing 14% thymine (T). According to Chargaff's rules, in a double-stranded DNA molecule, the amount of adenine (A) equals the amount of thymine (T), and the amount of guanine (G) equals the amount of cytosine (C). Since the DNA is double-stranded, if there is 14% thymine, there must also be 14% adenine.

Therefore, we have 28% of the DNA composed of adenine and thymine combined. Since DNA only consists of adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine, and must add up to 100%, the remaining percentage must be split equally between guanine and cytosine due to Chargaff's pairing rule. This means that guanine and cytosine combined would make up the remaining 72%, and since they are present in equal amounts, cytosine would make up half of this, which is 36%. Based on this information, we would predict the % C (cytosine) to be 36%.