GC Base Pair
This tutorial was created by Steve Minchin, in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham UK, using Jmol: an open-source Java viewer for chemical structures in 3D. www.jmol.org/You should be able to see the molecule on the right. To manipulate the model press and hold the left hand mouse button and drag to obtain the desired view. To zoom in or out, drag the mouse while pressing the shift key. To alter the presentation of the image or stop the rotation click with the right hand mouse button and select one of the options.
The GC base pair is shown in wireframe form to highlight the bonds with the van der Waals radius shown as dots. The three hydrogen bonds between the guanine and cytosine bases are shown as black broken lines.
To highlight different parts of the base pairs click one of the following options.
To highlight the atoms that face into the Major (blue) and Minor (pink) grooves and the C1' of deoxyribose (green) click this button:
More Tutorials
- To view a TA base pair click here.
- To view three base pairs click here.
- To view tutorial on the DNA double helix click here
- More Tutorials & Animations