"salt of DNA" - Biology Forum

last updated by

steve9191 16 years, 8 months ago

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- May 29, 2008 at 11:35 pm #9699
  steve9191
  Participant
  quote Watson and Crick:
  “We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.).”
  As a non-scientific writer, when I ran across this quote I was a little confused. I know that DNA is an acid, I just can’t figure out how salt got into the picture. Through Google searches, I tried to get answers to my questions about this quote, but have been largely unsuccessful. If anybody here would be kind enough to help out a scientific "outsider", I sure would be grateful.
  Is it accurate to say that DNA is a salt, or is it more accurate to say that DNA contains/produces salt? Does salt, somehow, have an impact on the functioning of DNA?
  Thanks, Steve
- May 30, 2008 at 12:07 am #84340
  blcr11
  Participant
  The phosphates of the DNA polymer are negatively charged. They will bind a cation as a counterion to achieve electroneutrality–usually Na+ or K+. That makes the polymer a "salt" of [Na+]x[DNA-].
- May 30, 2008 at 12:29 am #84341
  steve9191
  Participant
  Super. Thanks!
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