if the four basic nucleobases decide gene outcome (ACGT), but have strict complementary base pairing (A-C & G-T), are there then four values to variate with or just two, like binary?

Question

**Correction**: A-T & C-G, not ~~A-C & G-T~~
The question arose from [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/k3b4ba/just_like_computers_speak_in_binary_1s_and_0s_the/ge2jzil?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), where I compared binary code to human DNA’s ACGT, then someone who knows more about IT than me made a good question.

If it’s not clear what I’m asking yet:
in binary you can have a lot of variation with the values 1 and 0
in human DNA (if we ignore RNA and (U)racil for now) there are four values, A, C, G, T. But since they bind strictly A-C & G-T doesn’t that technically leave DNA with only two factors to variate with?

Like: ~~A-C, A-C, G-T, A-C~~ A-T, A-T, C-G, A-T
Instead of: AGTATAC

In: Biology

Answer 1

DNA runs in a twin strand (the double helix) so a strip of DNA is actually 2 strips of DNA joined at every nucleotide

Its still 4 option not binary just repeated in its opposition in the complementary strand of DNA.

So for instance you AGTATAC would be (for the sake of argument) the left hand strand and the right hand strand would read TCATATG

or when running parallel would look like

A-T

G-C

T-A

A-T

T-A

A-T

C-G

So it is 4 options not binary