Compare and contrast the structure of an alpha helix to the

Solution

Alpha helix is a protein secondary structure that is made up of aminoacids while DNA double helix is a DNA structure that is made up of nucleotides i.e purine and pyrimidine bases+ sugar+phosphate molecules. Each alpha helix 3.6 residues per turn that participate in hydrogen bonding while each helical turn of DNA consists of 10-10.5 base pairs. /20-21 nucleotides. Important characteristic of alpha helix is that hydrogen bonds are formed between N-H group of one amino acid and C=O group of the amino acid that is present four residues before. while an important characteristic of DNA double helix is that purine adenine bonds with pyrimidine thymine via two hydrogen bonds while purine guanine binds to pryimidine cytosine via three hydrogen bonds and the ratio of purines to pyrimidine is always1:1.Amount of adenine is equal to amount of that of thymine and amount of guanine is equal to that of cytosine. Alpha helix structure lacks presence of grooves but DNA double helix consists of minor and major grooves.