Re: 2 Strands of DNA - do these make 2 different batches of proteins?

Hi Helen,

Yes of course DNA is made of 2 strands which are antiparallel but a 
chunk of DNA will always code for same amino acids depending on its 
reading frame i.e Only ONE strand out of the two is coding at a moment.

Imagine a situation where you have DNA strand 5' AATGCGATA 3'
                                              3' TTACGCTAT 5'              

In this case, the mRNA formed for upper strand will be UUACGCUAU and for 
the lower strand will be AAUGCGAUA. Now, if you refer to the Table 
describing genetic codon (for 1st reading frame), you will find that the 
amino acids coded by 1st mRNA is Leu Arg Tyr and the 2nd amino acid codes 
for Asn Ala Ile. 

So 2 different strands are coding for different amino acids. So there is 
nothing to get confused. 

The role of other strand is highly appreciated at the time of DNA 
repairing i.e. Base excision repair and Nucleotide excision repair etc.

I hope i clarified.

Regards
Tarun Gupta
B.Sc (Hons) Bioinformatics
Panjab University,
India.
hotbacteria@rediffmail.com