Digital Biology Friday: Romantic DNA

Here's a lovely DNA structure from our friend, human immunodeficiency virus I. I especially like the way that two heart-like shapes appear in the structure.

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i-bd7f1d9af4cc00e2132dd15ac7c15ebb-hearts.gif

Is nature ironic or what?

More like this

Although, I didn't believe it when I first saw it. With all the years that I've heard (or taught) that all DNA is antiparallel, it was hard to believe my eyes. Yet here is parallel DNA, with both strands oriented in the same direction, right here on your monitor. And the commenters were correct.…
So, let's see what's new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Pathogens, PLoS ONE and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases this week. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week -…
Why do I love Cn3D? Let me count the ways. What does Cn3D do? (Hint: say "Cn3D" out loud). Seriously, Cn3D is a program that draws lovely pictures of molecular structures by using experimental data from techniques like X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.…
Okay, all of you biochemists and molecular biology types. I have a puzzle for you that I found by accident during a lecture. Yes, I was the one lecturing and the notes will be posted soon. In the meantime, here's your puzzle: What's unusual about this pair of bases? tags: DNA structure, DNA ,…

DNA ?
Is this structure formed following reverse transcription of the viral RNA ?

This sequence was synthesized using phosphoramidite chemistry.
It corresponds to the cDNA sequence of the dimerization initiation site SL1 of HIV- 1(Lai) RNA.