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Home Q & A Board Biology-Related Homework Help Genetics and Developmental Biology
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kdwill22 kdwill22
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10 years ago
DNA replication in early Drosophila embryos occurs about every 5 minutes. The Drosophila genome contains approximately 1.8×108 base pairs. Eukaryotic DNA polymerases synthesize DNA at a rate of approximately 40 nucleotides per second.

Approximately how many origins of replication are required for this rate of replication?
Remember that replication occurs bidirectionally from each origin of replication!
   
a. 7500
b. 15000
c. 1.2×106
d. 45000
e. 1500
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#1
Donated
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10 years ago
\(\frac{1.8x{10^{8}} base pairs/origins of replication}{5 minutes}x\frac{1 minute}{60 seconds}x\frac{1 second}{40 nucleotides}\)

This gives 15,000.  Although the question implies that we should divide by two because the replication is bidirectional, I believe we ignore that in this case because it takes 2 nucleotides for a base pair.
Pretty fly for a SciGuy
kdwill22 Author
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#2
10 years ago
Thank you...I wasn't sure if i was calculating it wrong.
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#3
10 years ago
15000
Answer accepted by topic starter
kdwill22 Authorkdwill22
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#4
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10 years ago
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alexamdean

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#5
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10 years ago
Ah man sorry. Guess I got caught up in semantics. Hope it didn't get you too badly
Pretty fly for a SciGuy
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