Question

The bases in the nontemplate DNA strand of a particular prokaryotic gene include 10% of thymine. What percentage of the primary transcript synthesized from this gene is uracil?

Answer 1

There will be 10% Uracil present in the primary transcript synthesized from the given gene.

Explanation:

• The process of synthesis of RNA from DNA is called transcription.
• The bases present in DNA are Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine and Thymine.
• In the double stranded DNA the Adenine pairs with thymine and Guanine pairs with cytosine.
• However, in RNA the thymine is replaced by Uracil.
• During transcription, the RNA polymerase uses one strand of DNA as an template for assembling nucleotides on the RNA transcript.
• The sequence of bases on the RNA transcript is same as the sequence of bases on the Non-template strand of DNA.
• Only difference is , the position occupied by thymine on the non-template DNA strand is occupied by Uracil on the RNA transcript.
• Thus, the percentage of Uracil on the transcript will be equal to the percentage of thymine on the template strand.