Explain what is meant by the term stringency in molecular bi

Explain what is meant by the term stringency (in molecular biology) and how can the stringency be adjusted?

Solution

ANSWER:

STRINGENCY:

Stringency is the extent to which hybridisation can occur between nucleic acids with mismatched sequences. High-stringency conditions require absolute complementarity between the molecules, while low-stringency conditions permit hybridisation where there are some mismatched bases.

The level of stringency can be varied by adjusting temperature, salt concentration or formamide concentration; this is important when, for example, searching for a single-base mutation in a DNA sequence.