How many major elements, trace elements, and ultra trace elements are
in DNA?  Please list them.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 27 Jan 2005 10:48 PST

Intriguing question!

You mentioned below that there are "at least 55 total elements" in
DNA.  Can you tell us a bit more about what you mean by this?  Where
did you come across this information?

As already noted, DNA is chemically composed of only a small number of
elements such as carbon and nitrogen.  But it certainly can be the
case that other elements associated themselves with DNA in a variety
of ways.

Tell us as much as you can in the way of background, and we'll see if
we can help you out on this one.

Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

Do you mean in a theoretical sense, or in terms of a typical sample
purified from a specific organsism?

DNA is composed of Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Hydrogen, and Oxygen.
 There are no trace elements in normal DNA.

There are at least 55 total elements in dna. You have to look deeper.

This makes me think that perhaps you don't mean elements?  There could
not be 55 actual elements in DNA.  The base pairs of DNA are Adenine,
Guanine, Cytosine, and Thymine.  These are composed of carbon, oxygen,
nitrogen and helium in differing arrangements.  These are bonded to
deoxyribose, a sugar composed entirely of carbon, oxygen, and
hydrogen.  Those in turn are bonded by a phosphate, composed of
phosphorus.

Beyond these that the previous commenter mentioned, what could we be
talking about?  Elements (such as radioactive ones) can corrupt DNA by
changing the base pairings, but would not actually bond with DNA....

There is no helium in DNA. The answer from zn833-ga is correct.
However, DNA in cells is associated with various ions (such as
magnesium), water molecules, and proteins, these are not usually
covalently attached to the DNA.