Question

For average organism, heavy digestion (overnight with an excess of enzyme) of chromatin with micrococcal nuclease would yield a ladder on a gel with bands every ________ base pairs.

a. 200
b. 146
c. 12
d. 36

Answer 1

Heavy digestion of chromatin with micrococcal nuclease yields a pattern with bands every 146 base pairs, which corresponds to the length of DNA wrapped around a nucleosome.

Step-by-step explanation:

For an average organism, heavy digestion overnight with an excess of enzyme of chromatin with micrococcal nuclease would yield a ladder on a gel with bands every 146 base pairs. This regular spacing corresponds to the DNA that is wrapped around the proteins of the nucleosome. The complex of DNA wrapped around histone proteins is crucial for compacting the DNA to fit inside the cell nucleus and is maintained at regular intervals.