When RNA is hydrolysed, there is no relationship among the quantities of different bases obtained. What does this fact suggest about the structure of RNA?
When RNA is hydrolysed, the absence of any relationship among the quantities of different bases obtained suggests that RNA has a single-stranded structure.
In DNA, there is a double strand helix structure where two nucleic acid chains are wound about each other and held together by hydrogen bonds between specific pairs of bases. The two strands are complementary because adenine pairs with thymine and cytosine pairs with guanine. This ensures that in DNA, the quantity of adenine equals thymine and cytosine equals guanine.
Since RNA shows no such fixed relationship among its bases, it indicates that RNA lacks the double-stranded complementary structure. The secondary structure of RNA consists of single stranded helices which sometimes fold back on itself.
Explanation
The textbook explains that DNA has a double strand helix structure with complementary base pairing (A-T and G-C), which creates a fixed relationship between the quantities of bases. In contrast, RNA has a single-stranded structure that sometimes folds back on itself. Since there's no complementary strand requiring specific base pairing, the quantities of different bases in RNA don't have a fixed relationship - this is what the hydrolysis data reveals about RNA's structure.