How fast to replicate?
Algebra
Level
2
A bacterial cell with adequate food can replicate in under an hour. In this time, everything in the cell must be copied, including its genome (i.e. the DNA). A copy of the DNA is made by molecular machines called DNA polymerase, which can copy 600 base pairs per second. If the genome of the strain B. acterium is base pairs long, and there are 6 molecules of DNA polymerase in the cell, how long (in seconds) would it take to copy the entire genome?
by
Josh Silverman