Question

The attractive interactions lead to _________ energy.

(a) increased

(b) higher

(c) lower

(d) no change in

The question was asked in an interview for job.

I would like to ask this question from RNA Secondary Structure Prediction Methods in portion RNA Structure Prediction of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

Right choice is (c) lower

To explain: If a base pair is next to other base pairs, the base pairs tend to stabilize each other through attractive stacking interactions between aromatic rings of the base pairs. The attractive interactions lead to even lower energy. Parameters for calculating the co-operativity of the base-pair formation have been determined and can be used for structure prediction.