Final answer:
The premise of the question is based on a misunderstanding; DNA denaturation occurs at a specific melting temperature, not by adding temperatures for each hydrogen bond. In PCR, DNA is denatured by heating once to a high temperature, generally around 95°C, which is sufficient to separate the strands.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question is asking how much total temperature is required to completely break the entire DNA molecule given. It is implied that the temperature required to break a single bond in the molecule is 12°C. However, this is a misunderstanding of how temperature and DNA denaturation work. The DNA molecule does not require the accumulation of temperature (as in adding 12°C for each bond) to break the bonds between the bases. Instead, DNA denaturation occurs once a specific threshold temperature (the melting temperature) is reached, and it is maintained for a sufficient time. Each hydrogen bond does not require separate individual temperatures to break.
In polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the DNA denaturation process occurs at a high temperature (usually around 95°C) regardless of the number of hydrogen bonds.So, assuming the question's premise that each bond requires a separate temperature increase, this approach would not be how DNA denaturation works in practice. In reality, you would heat the entire DNA molecule to its melting temperature, which is sufficiently high to break all hydrogen bonds almost simultaneously. Therefore, the total temperature required would be a single melting temperature that depends on the sequence composition, specifically the G-C content, and not a sum of temperatures for each bond.