<P> Nuclear DNA, or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid (nDNA), is the DNA contained within the nucleus of a eukaryotic organism . Nuclear DNA encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with mitochondrial DNA and plastid DNA coding for the rest . Nuclear DNA adheres to Mendelian inheritance, with information coming from two parents, one male and one female, rather than matrilineally, as in mitochondrial DNA . </P> <P> Nuclear DNA is a nucleic acid, a polymeric biomolecule or biopolymer, found in the nucleus of eukaryotic organisms . Its structure is a double helix, with two strands wound around each other . This double helix structure was first described by Francis Crick and James D. Watson (1953) using data collected by Rosalind Franklin . Each strand is a long polymer chain of repeating nucleotides . Each nucleotide is composed of a five - carbon sugar, a phosphate group, and an organic base . Nucleotides are distinguished by their bases . There are the purines, large bases which include adenine and guanine, and pyrimidines, small bases which include thymine and cytosine . Chargaff's rules state that adenine will always pair with thymine and guanine will always pair with cytosine . The phosphate groups are held together by a phosphodiester bond and the bases are held together by hydrogen bonds . </P> <P> Nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA differ in many ways, starting with location and structure . Nuclear DNA is located within the nucleus of eukaryote cells and usually has two copies per cell while mitochondrial DNA is located in the mitochondria and contains 100 - 1,000 copies per cell . The structure of nuclear DNA chromosomes is linear with open ends and includes 46 chromosomes containing 3 billion nucleotides . Mitochondrial DNA chromosomes usually have closed, circular structures, and contain for example 16,569 nucleotides in human . Nuclear DNA is diploid, inheriting the DNA from both mother and father, while mitochondrial DNA is haploid, coming only from the mother . The mutation rate for nuclear DNA is less than 0.3% while that of mitochondrial DNA is generally higher . </P>

Where is the dna located in the nucleus