Now we assume that the DNA is a double helix but a long time ago (before Watson and Crick) people believed that the DNA was a polymer just like a elongated tublin molecule. With the DNA bases all stacked on each other. This tetranucleotide hypothesis of DNA was proposed by a very well established scientist of his time, Phoebus Levene. His structure of the DNA proposed that all the bases occur equal number of times on the tetrad strcuture, hence %A=%T=%G=%C.
But a very brilliant scientist Erwin Chargaff did amazing analytical chemistry to prove Levene wrong and formulated what is know today as the Chargaff's Rules.
In fact these rules, %A=%T and %G=%C, is the reason why Watson and Crick were able to come to the double helix structure of the DNA.
Your job is to prove recreate Chargaff's experiments using python.
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Analyze the .fasta files of the genome of:
- Humans
- Plasmodium falciparum
- Anopheles gambiaeas and calculate the %A, %T, %C, and %G. What do you conclude from your analysis?
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Analyze the covid 19 genome and comment on the types of nucleotides there. What do you deduce about the virus from the %A, %T, %G and %C?