Question

Transcription and replication share a number of characteristics. Which of the following is a shared characteristic?

A. Neither requires unwinding of the double helix.
B. Both use the energy from the hydrolysis of dNTPs
C. Both use base pairing to determine specificity.
D. Both catalyze the synthesis of peptide bonds.
E. Both add bases to the 5' end of the growing chain.

Answer 1

Both transcription and replication use base pairing to ensure specificity during the adding of new nucleotides to their respective growing strands. This mechanism guarantees the accuracy of the RNA transcript and the new DNA strands being synthesized.

Step-by-step explanation:

Transcription and replication share several characteristics, but the correct shared characteristic from the options provided is that both use base pairing to determine specificity.

During both processes, nucleotides are added to the growing DNA or RNA strand through specific base pairing, which is determined by the rules of complementarity outlined by Watson-Crick: adenine (A) pairs with thymine (T) in DNA and with uracil (U) in RNA, while guanine (G) pairs with cytosine (C). These specific pairings ensure that the RNA transcript in transcription and the new DNA strands in replication are accurate copies of the template strands.

Furthermore, both processes involve the enzymes DNA polymerase for replication and RNA polymerase for transcription, which add new nucleotides to the 3' end of the newly synthesized strand, using the energy provided by the hydrolysis of dNTPs for replication and NTPs for transcription.