Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The hydrogen bonding of complementary nitrogenous bases, one purine and one pyrimidine, in DNA and in hybrid molecules joining DNA and RNA.

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Examples

  • If you let it cool again, each single helix spontaneously joins up again with another single helix, or fragment of single helix, wherever it finds one with which it can pair, using the ordinary base-pairing rules of the double helix.

    THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009

  • Identification of a base-pairing with a quantum query gives a natural (and first ever!) explanation of why living organisms have 4 nucleotide bases and 20 amino acids.

    A Voice from the Middle Ground 2007

  • If you let it cool again, each single helix spontaneously joins up again with another single helix, or fragment of single helix, wherever it finds one with which it can pair, using the ordinary base-pairing rules of the double helix.

    THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009

  • Single bases in DNA can be chemically mutated, for example by deamination or alkylation, resulting in incorrect base-pairing, and consequently, mutations in the DNA.

    Another Protozoan and Front-Loading 2006

  • The antisense strand is loaded into the RISC complex and links the complex to the mRNA strand by base-pairing.

    Advanced Information: The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006

  • They established that long dsRNA is cleaved to small RNA (about 25 nucleotides long), and that antisense RNA triggers degradation of mRNA via base-pairing to mRNA.

    Advanced Information: The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006

  • The miRNAs can regulate gene expression by base-pairing to mRNA, which results in either degradation of the mRNA or suppression of translation.

    Advanced Information: The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006

  • The input starts base-pairing with the gate and can eventually displace the output molecule right.

    Wired Top Stories John Timmer 2011

  • Methylation doesn't change the base-pairing rules of DNA-a methylated C will still pair with a G-but it does alter how the base looks chemically, and thus which proteins can interact with it, and thus what happens to the genes nearby.

    Ars Technica John Timmer 2011

  • Even if this portion of the substrate is not part of the recognition domain (i.e. the base-pairing domain), it has been proposed to play a crucial role as an external determinant of the ability of a substrate to be cleaved in addition to potentially imposing steric hindrances that limit the cleavage activity.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Michel V. L�vesque et al. 2010

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