Question

What are major and minor grooves?

Answer 1

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a molecule composed of two chains that coil around each other to form a double helix carrying the genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning, and reproduction of all known living organisms and many viruses. The DNA itself makes up chromosomes. The strand backbones are closer together on one side of the helix than on the other. The stacking of the bases occurs when the phosphodiester backbone faces outward & nitrogenous bases face inward. This results in the formation of two different grooves on opposite sides of the base pairs called major and minor grooves. The major groove occurs where the backbones are far apart, the minor groove occurs where they are close together. The grooves twist around the molecule on opposite sides.