If you were to take all of the DNA chains from all of the chromosomes in your bo
ID: 191172 • Letter: I
Question
If you were to take all of the DNA chains from all of the chromosomes in your body and stitch them all together into one gigantic linear double helix, how long would that helix be? Use the fact that a 1 kilobase pair (kbp) double helix of DNA is 340 nanometers in length (340 nm) and that the haploid human genome contains 3.3 x 109 bp of DNA to make your calculation (and remember that human cells are diploid!). Assume that the human body contains 1013 cells and use the conversion factor 1 Meter = 6.2 x 10-4 Miles. Show your work (with all appropriate unit conversions) and express your answer in solar units (1 solar unit = distance from earth to the sun = 9.1 x 107 miles).
Explanation / Answer
Each cell of human beings consists of 46 Chromosomes or two genomes.
Number of base pairs present per genome =3.3 x 109 bp.
Therefore, number of base pairs per cell=6.6 x 109 bp.
The distance between two consecutive bp=3.4Ao
Total length of DNA in a cell =6.6 x 109bp x 3.4 Ao=2.2 meters.
Total number of cells in a human body =1013
Total length of DNA =2.2 X 10 13=22 x 10 12meters. Or 22 x 109 km.
Or 22/1.609*10 9=13.67 x 109miles or 1367 x 107
One Solar unit =9.1 x 107 miles.
Therefore, total number of Solar units =(1367 x 107) / (9.1 x 107)=150.21 solar units