DNA Length & Genome Sizes — NEET Biology
✅ Asked in NEET 2022Match List-I with List-II: (NEET 2022 Phase 2) List-I: (a) Bacteriophage φX174 (b) Bacteriophage lambda (c) Escherichia coli (d) Haploid content of human DNA List-II: (i) 48,502 base pairs (ii) 5386 nucleotides (iii) 3.3 × 10⁹ base pairs (iv) 4.6 × 10⁶ base pairs Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Match List-I with List-II: (NEET 2022 Phase 2) List-I: (a) Bacteriophage φX174 (b) Bacteriophage lambda (c) Escherichia coli (d) Haploid content of human DNA List-II: (i) 48,502 base pairs (ii) 5386 nucleotides (iii) 3.3 × 10⁹ base pairs (iv) 4.6 × 10⁶ base pairs Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & NCERT explanation
Correct answer: D — a–ii, b–i, c–iv, d–iii
Without seeing the actual lists, this is a matching question that requires correlating specific biological concepts. In NEET matching questions, each item in List-I corresponds to exactly one item in List-II. The correct answer (d) suggests the pairing: a-ii, b-i, c-iv, d-iii. These matching questions typically involve DNA structure, replication components, or molecular biology processes.
Read more NCERT concept on the PYQ
DNA is a long polymer of deoxyribonucleotides. The length of DNA is usually defined as number of nucleotides (or a pair of nucleotide referred to as base pairs) present in it. This also is the characteristic of an organism. For example, a bacteriophage known as φX174 has 5386 nucleotides, Bacteriophage lambda has 48502 base pairs (bp), Escherichia coli has 4.6 × 106 bp, and haploid content of human DNA is 3.3 × 109 bp. Let us discuss the structure of such a long polymer.
NTA tests your ability to recall exact genome sizes across organisms—from φX174 (5386 nucleotides) to humans (3.3 × 10⁹ bp). Students often confuse base pairs (bp) with nucleotides; remember that one bp = two nucleotides in double-stranded DNA. The key trap: mixing up the units or forgetting the exponential notation for large organisms. To score correctly, memorize the order of magnitude: bacteria < E. coli < humans, and distinguish between single-stranded viruses (counted as nucleotides) and double-stranded DNA (counted as bp). This concept bridges genomic comparison, evolution, and DNA structure—core NEET topics.
What does NCERT say about DNA long polymer deoxyribonucleotides?
Has this concept appeared in NEET?
Which chapter is this from?
Through deep analysis of NEET and NTA, 88 of 90 questions from the NEET 2026 paper were matched straight from the MedicNEET Biology question bank.
88/90MedicNEET's Biology question bank is built from the same NCERT lines NTA picks repeatedly. Not random MCQs — questions crafted exactly like NTA crafts them.