How do i make a DNA model without food or pipe cleaners?
Simple and informative models of DNA can be built with K’NEX ® brand constructors, found at most toy stores. These models, which take only a few minutes to build, illustrate many important physical properties of DNA including the major and minor grooves, antiparallel strands, right-handed and left-handed helices, positive and negative supercoiling, molecular flexibility, etc. More elaborate models can be built to illustrate complementary base pairing, transcription and replication. If students are allowed to build and manipulate the models, they will gain an intuitive sense of the physical properties of DNA which are essential to many cellular processes. These models can be used in either a high school or college setting.
