The Open Genomics Journal

2009, 2 : 12-14
Published online 2009 April 01. DOI: 10.2174/1875693X00902010012
Publisher ID: TOGENJ-2-12

A Proposed Solution to the Historic Puzzle of Chargaff's Second Parity Rule

Kenji Sorimachi
this author at the Educational Support Center, Dokkyo Medical University, Mibu, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan;

ABSTRACT

Chargaff ’s first parity rule for the contents of the four nucleotides in DNA is easily understood based on the double-stranded DNA structure. However, the second parity rule, based on similar nucleotide relationships in singlestranded DNA, has been a puzzle in molecular biology, because it is impossible to imagine how pairs of G and C, and A and T are formed in the single DNA strand. In the present study, Chargaff’s second parity rule can be solved based on nucleotide contents and the correlation between the two strands in double-stranded DNA.