Question

critical thinking

1. construct an explanation why is it useful for the

base pairs of dna to be held together by hydrogen
bonds and not covalent bonds?

Explanation:

DNA base pairs (adenine - thymine, guanine - cytosine) are held by hydrogen bonds, not covalent bonds. Hydrogen bonds are weaker than covalent bonds. This is useful because during processes like DNA replication and transcription, the two strands of the DNA double helix need to separate. Weaker hydrogen bonds allow this separation to occur more easily (with less energy input) compared to if covalent bonds were holding the base pairs, which would require much more energy to break and would hinder these essential biological processes.

Answer:

DNA base pairs are held by hydrogen bonds (not covalent bonds). It is useful because weaker hydrogen bonds allow easy strand separation during replication/transcription (less energy needed) compared to strong covalent bonds which would hinder these processes.