{"id":269576,"date":"2025-07-24T16:51:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T16:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=269576"},"modified":"2025-07-24T16:51:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T16:51:06","slug":"macmillan-learning-the-process-by-which-two-complementary-nucleic-acid-strands-base-pair-to-form-a-double-stranded-structure-is-called","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/24\/macmillan-learning-the-process-by-which-two-complementary-nucleic-acid-strands-base-pair-to-form-a-double-stranded-structure-is-called\/","title":{"rendered":"Macmillan Learning The process by which two complementary nucleic acid strands base-pair to form a double-stranded structure is called"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Macmillan Learning The process by which two complementary nucleic acid strands base-pair to form a double-stranded structure is called <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A recombination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>B freezing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>C annealing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>D ligation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>E supercoiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-6-color\">The correct answer and explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct answer is <strong>C) annealing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Annealing<\/strong> refers to the process by which two complementary nucleic acid strands (such as DNA or RNA) base-pair with each other to form a double-stranded structure. This occurs when the temperature is lowered in a solution of single-stranded nucleic acids, allowing them to re-form the double helix by complementary base pairing, i.e., adenine pairs with thymine (in DNA), and cytosine pairs with guanine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This process is crucial for various biological and laboratory processes. For example, in DNA replication, the two strands of DNA must separate, and then they can &#8220;anneal&#8221; back together with the help of enzymes like DNA polymerase. In laboratory techniques like polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the annealing step is a critical phase where primers (short pieces of single-stranded DNA) bind to their complementary sequences on the target DNA, allowing for the replication of the desired region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is why the other options are incorrect:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>A) Recombination<\/strong> refers to the process by which genetic material is exchanged between different molecules, leading to genetic variation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>B) Freezing<\/strong> is a physical process where molecules slow down due to a drop in temperature; it is not related to the pairing of nucleic acid strands.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>D) Ligation<\/strong> is the process of joining two strands of DNA by forming a phosphodiester bond, typically carried out by the enzyme DNA ligase. It does not involve base pairing of complementary strands.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>E) Supercoiling<\/strong> refers to the coiling of a DNA molecule in a more compact form, which happens to relieve tension during DNA replication and transcription but is not related to base-pairing or annealing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, <strong>annealing<\/strong> is the correct term for the base-pairing process that forms a double-stranded nucleic acid structure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Macmillan Learning The process by which two complementary nucleic acid strands base-pair to form a double-stranded structure is called A recombination. B freezing. C annealing. D ligation. E supercoiling. The correct answer and explanation is: The correct answer is C) annealing. Annealing refers to the process by which two complementary nucleic acid strands (such as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}