Question

Which of the following is a Wobble base pair?
a) Guanine-uracil (G-U)
b) Hypoxanthine-uracil (I-U)
c)Hypoxanthine- adenine (I-A)
d)All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is mainly composed of purines and pyrimidines base pairs. The DNA present is double-stranded and is in a helical structure. The deoxyribose attaches to the nitrogenous base and together they form a nucleoside.

Complete answer:
 There is the degeneracy of the codons to explain that the wobble hypothesis was given. According to this, the first two codons pair directly to the anticodons of the t-RNA molecule but the third codon doesn’t pair with the anticodon properly so it leads to instability. The wobble base pairs occur between the molecules that do not follow the Watson and crick base-pairing rules. The wobble base pairs include the guanine-uracil bond, hypoxanthine-uracil bond, hypoxanthine-adenine bond, and hypoxanthine-cytosine bond. ‘I’ is used to symbolize the hypoxanthine base which is the nucleobase of inosine. The wobble base pairs provide a broad spectrum as we have a limited amount of t-RNA’s present in our body. They are necessary for the proper translation of the genetic code. They also ensure the thermodynamic stability which is similar to that provided by the Watson and crick base pair. They help in minimizing the damage that can be caused while reading the code.
So, the answer is ‘all of the above’.

Note: Francis Crick gave the Wobble hypothesis which was different from the Watson and crick model. The wobble or the unstable position of the codon is that of the third codon present in the reading frame. The binding at the third base pair is usually looser than the first two bases that is why it was called wobble base pairs.