Thoughts of Jade: DNA Shape

DNA, contrary to popular belief is not a "twisted ladder" with equal sides and such. it has an interesting form with a major and a minor groove, the minor being about half the size of the other. To demonstrate, here is a picture of correct DNA:

Notice the major and minor grooves, with the different distance between the backbone sections. This is because the way that the nucleotide bases align against each other is not parallel, but anti parallel, with the bases turning in the same direction, leading to a small side and a big side.












This is incorrect:

Notice the twist is equal on all sides. This is not correct. I've found consistently that about half of the pictures of DNA out there depict it incorrectly. I hope this lesson helps.