The Guanine-cytosine content reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Guanine-cytosine content

In genetics, the guanine-cytosine content (GC content) is the ratio of guanine and cytosine to the total number of nucleotides of a given genome. It is used, among other things, to easily distinguish between different species when a doubt remains.

The GC content can be measured by several means but one of the simplest methods is to measure what is called the melting temperature of the DNA double helix with a spectrophotometer. The absorbance of DNA at a wavelength of 260 nm increases fairly sharply when the double-stranded DNA separates into two single strands when sufficiently heated.

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