Stephen (a 9th grader) wanted to know how the two halves of a DNA strand which has been taken apart (denatured) recombine.
The molecules which form the DNA are one of four nucleotides (called: A,C, G, and T) which connect to each other only in specific pairs, so that when two nucleotides are separated, each remaining molecule will only recombine with its matching molecule. The two pairs are AT and CG.
The whole point to this process is the replication of DNA. A complete strand will split into two whole parts, with each half then replicating its missing strand from the pool of nucleotides in the cell’s nucleus. Also, a DNA strand must separate its two halves in order to produce protein (one of DNA’s keyholes). In this case, only one of the halves is used to create protein. The other strand is known as the nonsense strand.
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