What are common mistakes students make with chargaff's rule?

Adenine always pairs with thymine in DNA, and guanine always pairs with cytosine. This pattern of base-pairing is crucial in ensuring that the DNA will be replicated error-free prior to a cell going through mitotic cell division. Chargaff's rule states that the nitrogen bases adenine and thymine occur in equal concentrations within DNA, and the nitrogen bases guanine and cytosine likewise occur in equal concentrations.

I would point out that A and T paired together as they should be spelled "at" to help my students remember the correct pairing. This leaves the other base pair to be G:C. The most frequent error that students make is forgetting which bases pair with each other. There are four bases: A, T, G, and C.

Common mistakes with Chargaff's rule include misinterpreting the base pair relationships, confusing complementary base pairs, and overlooking the equal adenine-thymine and guanine-cytosine ratios in DNA.