base pair

American  

noun

Genetics.

1. any of the pairs of the hydrogen-bonded purine and pyrimidine bases that form the links between the sugar-phosphate backbones of nucleic acid molecules: the pairs are adenine and thymine in DNA, adenine and uracil in RNA, and guanine and cytosine in both DNA and RNA.

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base pair Scientific  

1. Any of the pairs of nucleotides connecting the complementary strands of a molecule of DNA or RNA and consisting of a purine linked to a pyrimidine by hydrogen bonds. The base pairs are adenine-thymine and guanine-cytosine in DNA, and adenine-uracil and guanine-cytosine in RNA or in hybrid DNA-RNA pairing. Base pairs may be thought of as the rungs of the DNA ladder.

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Etymology

Origin of base pair

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

According to a study published on November 26 in Nature Communications, the first 100 base pairs after this starting point experience mutations at a rate 35% higher than expected by chance.

From Science Daily

Scientists have long known that genome size -- the total number of DNA base pairs containing an organism's genetic instructions -- can vary widely between species, even among those with similar complexity.

From Science Daily

Many of these loops allow genes to interact with distant regulatory regions -- sometimes millions of base pairs apart -- while others form during mitosis to pack chromosomes tightly.

From Science Daily

Results showed that those taking vitamin D maintained their telomeres by 140 base pairs compared with the placebo group.

From Science Daily

Nearly all modern humans carry a version of the NOVA1 gene that differs by a single DNA base pair from the version found in Neanderthals.

From Science Daily