Question

If it were determined that the sugar-phosphates making the nucleotides in alien nucleic acid were similar in nature to those found on Earth, how many phosphate groups would be found in the piece of alien DNA with 160 nucleotides per strand

Answer 1

Answer: 320 phosphate groups.

Each nucleotide of DNA contains one  phosphate group attached to it.Therefore if there were 160 nucleotides in a strand;,definitely each nucleotide of the  strand must contain one phosphate group, therefore  160 phosphate groups. must be present.

 However, a DNA molecule must contain double strands, therefore 160 multiplied by 2 should give 320 phosphate groups in the alien DNA.

Explanation: