Chemistry

1704 Submissions

[1] viXra:1704.0345 [pdf] submitted on 2017-04-26 05:16:15

A Reassessment of Nucleic Acid Melting

Authors: Sosale Chandrasekhar
Comments: 13 Pages.

A brief critique of DNA and RNA melting, particularly from a physico-chemical perspective, is presented. These melting phenomena have been employed to obtain quantitative estimates of the stability of putative base pairs, thus apparently bolstering the double helical structure of DNA. It is argued herein that the titled phenomena may not be what they seem: in particular, the strategy based on the van’t Hoff equation may not be valid, and alternative interpretations of the results merit serious consideration. These arguments cast a shadow on current views about nucleic acid structure and stability.
Category: Chemistry