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By Dr Tushar Chauhan October 18, 2022

6 Different forms of DNA

DNA is known to us. It’s a nucleic acid made up of sugar, phosphate and nitrogenous bases and is a hereditary unit.

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But do you know there are different forms of DNA exist in nature? Let’s see what are those.

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B- form, A-form, Z-form, C-form, D-form and E-form DNA are different forms of DNA based on their helical structure.

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The B-form DNA is double-stranded and right-handed DNA helix. The single turn consist of 10 bases with a diameter of 20Å.

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B-form DNA

Interestingly, the chemical structure demonstrated by Watson and Crick was the B-form DNA. It is the most prevalent form.

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A-form DNA is also a right-handed DNA helix. It consists of 11 bases per turn with a diameter of 23Å. It is the second most common form of DNA after the B form.

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A-form DNA

Z-form DNA is a left-handed DNA helix. It consists of 12 bases per turn with a diameter of 18Å.

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Z-form DNA

C-form DNA is a right-handed DNA helix and is less prevalent. It consists of  9.33 bases per turn with a diameter of 19Å.

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C-form DNA

D-form DNA is a right-handed DNA helix and is very rare in nature. It consists of 8 bases per helix turn.

Image Credit: Alexander Antropov from Pixabay.

D-form DNA

E- form DNA contains 7.5 bases per helix turn and is very rare. Fewer research data is available on E-form DNA.

Image credit: Alexander Antropov from Pixabay.

E-form DNA

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