2007-06-15 10:52:10 · 7 answers · asked by Shawn 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
How long is one human strand of DNA?
2007-06-15 10:57:35 · update #1
How long is one strand of human DNA in kilometers?
2007-06-15 11:09:09 · update #2
The answer depends on which strand you pick, of course. There are 23 pairs of chromosomes, each a single pair of strands, and some are longer than others.
The longest one is chromosome 1, with about 250 million base pairs, and the shortest is chromosome 22 with about 50 million.
Usually all those base pairs are wound up tightly, but if you were to somehow stretch them out to make a straight line the short one would end up being a line about 17 mm long, and the long one 85 mm long (that's about 2/3 of an inch and 3 inches if you prefer).
If you were to line up ALL the DNA in a single cell (two copies of 23 chromosomes) it would be about 2 meters long, which is 0.002 km, of course. Just before a cell divides it has two copies of each of those two copies, so again there's some variability in the answer.
Hope that helps.
2007-06-15 11:18:33 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1 strand of human dna is about 3 meters long
2007-06-15 11:04:27 · answer #2 · answered by serok37 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Bibliographic Entry Result (w/surrounding text) Standardized Result Mitchel, Campbell Reece. Biology Concept and Connections. California, 1997. "At actual size, a human cell's DNA totals about 3 meters in length." 3.0 m McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. New York: McGraw Hill, 1997. "If stretched out, would form very thin thread, about 6 feet (2 meters) long." 2.0 m Matthews, Harry R. DNA Structure Prerequisite Information. 1997. "The length is (length of 1 bp)(number of bp per cell) which is (0.34 nm)(6 × 109)" 2.0 m Leltninger, Albert L. Biochemistry. New York: Worth, 1975. "Chromosome 13 contains a DNA molecule about 3.2 cm long." 1.5 m "Cell." The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: Field Enterprises, 1996. "On the average, a single human chromosome consists of DNA molecule that is about 2 inches long." 2.3 m
2016-04-01 09:50:22 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
typical piece of DNA from a human eukaryote cell would stretch for 1600 kilometers
2007-06-16 04:22:50 · answer #4 · answered by masrath r 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
2-3 meters according to http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1998/StevenChen.shtml
some say 2m, some say 3m.
Your body has enough DNA to stretch to the sun and back 70x! Cool!
2007-06-15 12:41:20 · answer #5 · answered by LouLou 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
20-30 nt long
2007-06-15 11:05:16 · answer #6 · answered by ♥ ♥ ♥ 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
bacterial or human?
2007-06-15 10:55:56 · answer #7 · answered by Yellow Tail 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋