The human chromosome 7 is 159 million base pairs in length H

The human chromosome 7 is 159 million base pairs in length. How long is this chromosome in nanometers? Assume the DNA is B-DNA.

Solution

Length of chromosome = (length of 1 base protein) X (number of base protein per cel)

(0.34 × 10^-9 m)(159 × 10^-6) = 54.06 x 10^-3 m.

This is length of a single continuous strand of chained base proteins. Since the DNA being referred is B-DNA i.e. a double helix, we need to divide the length obtained by 2. Thus,

Length of chromosome = 54.06 x 10^-3 m / 2 = 27.03 x 10^-3 m = 27,000,000 nm.