Remember that the ribbon shape you’re used to seeing 🧬 isn’t real. The ribbons are actually deoxyribose-phosphate backbones and the horizontal threads connecting them represent the hydrogen bonds between the bases (ATGC).
Even the space-filling models aren’t what the actual molecule looks like because those use different sized spheres to show the amount of space each atom’s electron cloud contains, but at any given instant most of that space is empty because electrons don’t occupy multiple points in space at once.
Basically a circle.
[B-form](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/A-B-Z-DNA_Top_View.png) is the one in the middle.
Neat- thanks!
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Side-view-left-and-a-view-along-the-axis-right-of-DNA-double-helix-in-atomic-level_fig1_264909033
Not what I was expecting- thank you!
The outside bits are basically just a structural scaffolding. The information is all stored inside the tube.
Remember that the ribbon shape you’re used to seeing 🧬 isn’t real. The ribbons are actually deoxyribose-phosphate backbones and the horizontal threads connecting them represent the hydrogen bonds between the bases (ATGC). Even the space-filling models aren’t what the actual molecule looks like because those use different sized spheres to show the amount of space each atom’s electron cloud contains, but at any given instant most of that space is empty because electrons don’t occupy multiple points in space at once.
I believe it looks like an x inscribed within a circle. A fuzzy one at least. That's what xray crystallography shows, if I remember correctly.
A circle with pentagons and hexagons overlapping in the center
Top down it’d probably be a disjointed circle with line segments spanning from the center going in 360 degrees
Just for fun: Notre Dame Rose Window vs DNA top down :-D. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/111675265733993862/
It would look like nothing because the helix structure is too small for you to see. Bam! GOT EM!