Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-genetics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-1/7/a/solution
Past exam of the genetics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 Paper 1 7 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
A useful schematic is the upper critical solution temperature form of a binodal: a dome in temperature versus chromatin concentration. Below the dome, an intermediate overall concentration separates into a dilute phase and a chromatin-rich phase; above it the liquid is homogeneous. At a fixed temperature, the two intersections of a horizontal tie line give the compositions of the coexisting phases, not the concentrations of two different initial samples.
Schematic upper-critical-solution-temperature model for chromatin demixing and weaker attraction at lower salt
. Details. The diagram is a model, not measured phase-boundary data. The stated observation at one salt concentration does not by itself establish whether heating suppresses or promotes demixing. A lower critical solution temperature system would instead demix on heating, and would need the corresponding inverted geometry. The following answers make the usual enthalpically favourable-demixing assumption explicit.
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