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DNA is a linear polymer of nucleotides whose phosphates bridge the 3' and 5' positions of succesive 2-deoxy-D-ribose residues, and nitrogenous bases such as purines and pyrimidines. In detail, DNA is a) a helical molecule, and b) its planar aromatic bases form a stack of parallel rings that is parallel to the fiber axis.

There are several configurations of the DNA molecule. The A, B, and C forms of DNA are right-handed, double-stranded helices which, in fibrous form, are stable at intermediate, high, and low relative humidities, respectively, and have 11, 10, and 9.3 base pairs per turn of double helix. The left-handed helix of B-DNA structure is refered as Z-DNA (it contains 12 bases pairs per turn of double helix, and has only a single groove. B-DNA (the so-called Watson-Crick structure) is regarded as the native form because its X-ray pattern resembles that of the DNA in intact sperm heads, and is a double helix with around 20 angstroms diameter. The planes of the bases are nearly perpendicular to the helix axis and conserve the so-called "complementary base pairing" (that is, adenine base always is in front of a guanine base, as well as thymine is always in front of a cytosine.

The "ideal" B-DNA helix has 10 base pairs (bp ) per turn (a helical twist of 36o per bp) and, the aromatic bases have van der Waals thicknesses of 3.4 angstroms and are partially stacked on each other (known as base stacking). Finally, the helix has a pitch (rise per turn) of 34 angstroms.

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