In article <Pine.SUN.3.91.960311121516.1660C-100000 at mcz>, dmw at MCZ.HARVARD.EDU
(Daniel Weinreich) says:
You apparently
>missed the point that in a SINGLE strand of DNA, the C-content is totally
>independent of the G-content.
Sorry not true. Chargaff's rule applies to single-stranded DNA as
well as to double stranded DNA. For references see J. Mol. Evol. 41,573-581.
There is an abundant literature going back to Karkas in Chargaff's laboratory
in 1968.
...but seeing as single stranded DNA does not
>undergo Watson-Crick base-pairing to itself, the G+C and A+T partition is
>arbitrary. One might as well have chosen to report G+A content or G+T
>content, but there is less information in any one of these partitions
>than in the individual base frequencies themselves.
Sorry, not true again. Single stranded DNA does undergo Watson-Crick
base pairing. For references see Mol. Biol. Evol. 12, 949-958;1157-1165.
Sincerely, Don Forsdyke
