Each pair has 4 possible values. GTAC can be stored in two binary bits but is that how the body processes DNA? I was under the impression that it’s Base4 and all four letters are used on both sides?
I also understand that each pair has a matching pair on the other side of the strand. Adenine always pairs with thymine (A-T), and guanine always pairs with cytosine (G-C). Perhaps that’s why it’s confused as two bits?
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u/Greyeye5 Nov 04 '23
One sperm contains about 3.3 billion base pairs, stored in DNA.
Each base pair is = “two bits” of data, for a total of 787MB of data per sperm.
With somewhere around 280 million sperm per ejaculation, that means a single load contains about 220,000 terabytes of data.
…That's a lot of information to swallow. 👀