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Why Is It Important To Observe DNA Composition By High-Performance Liquid Chromatography?

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Deoxyribonucleic acid is a very crucial key for life within organisms. DNA is a complexed, long-chained molecule that encodes the genetic characteristics of a living organism.1 DNA contains ribonucleic acid and proteins within chromosomes that are found within the cell’s nucleus. In typical humans’ cells, we contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46 in which we get half from our mother and the other half from our father. DNA acid is a polymer made of four nucleotides: Cytosine, Thymine, Adenine and Guanine. DNA is usually double-stranded, with A and T being hydrogen bonded to each other, and C and G being hydrogen bonded. In this experiment we observed DNA composition by High-Performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). HPLC is a quantitative analysis technique that is commonly used to separate and identify individual components within a mixture. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is a form of column chromatography that pumps a sample mixture or analyte in a solvent (known as the mobile phase) at high pressure through a column with chromatographic packing material (stationary phase).2 With the use of HPLC we were able to observe different amounts of nucleotides that were present in calf thymus DNA.

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