Suppose a scientist working on a new drug for cancer developed a chemical that irreversibly breaks the hydrogen bonds in the dna molecules within cancerous cells but leaves all of the covalent bonds intact. hydrogen bonds are relatively weak compared to covalent bonds, and they are routinely broken and reformed as the dna molecule is replicated in a normal cell. their stability is nonetheless critical for maintaining certain aspects of the structure and function of the dna molecule. based on this scenario and your knowledge of dna, how would this newly discovered chemical affect the "molecule of heredity" in a human cancer cell?

Question

Luci

Biology

14 November, 10:52

Suppose a scientist working on a new drug for cancer developed a chemical that irreversibly breaks the hydrogen bonds in the dna molecules within cancerous cells but leaves all of the covalent bonds intact. hydrogen bonds are relatively weak compared to covalent bonds, and they are routinely broken and reformed as the dna molecule is replicated in a normal cell. their stability is nonetheless critical for maintaining certain aspects of the structure and function of the dna molecule. based on this scenario and your knowledge of dna, how would this newly discovered chemical affect the "molecule of heredity" in a human cancer cell?

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Jane · Answer 1

Basically then the cancer cell will no longer be able to replicate and they would also not have DNA and will die.

Hydrogen bonds must break and new strands of DNA are replicated through a semiconservative method where one strand is new and the other old (from the original DNA) but if hydrogen bonds cannot reform then not only no new DNA cannot be made but also the original DNA is no longer there either. The cell will die