A restriction endonuclease has a recognition site of 3 bases. Assuming random arrangement of nucleotides, the probability that this endonuclease will cut a piece of DNA is __________ (rounded off to three decimal places).
Correct Answer: 0.015
Solution and Explanation
To determine the probability that a restriction endonuclease with a 3-base recognition site will cut a piece of DNA, we must consider the randomness in nucleotide arrangement. In DNA, there are 4 possible nucleotides: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). For each position in the recognition site, any of the 4 nucleotides can occur. Hence, the total number of unique sequences that could potentially match the recognition site is 43, as there are 3 bases in the recognition site.
Calculate: 43 = 4 × 4 × 4 = 64.
The probability that a specific sequence of 3 bases will appear by chance is 1 out of these 64 possibilities.
Thus, the probability (P) is computed as:
P = 1/64.
Converting this to a decimal gives:
P = 0.015625.
Rounded to three decimal places, P = 0.015.
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