DNA denaturation refers to the melting of double-stranded DNA into single strands by breaking the hydrogen bonds between bases. It can be caused by elevated temperature, extremes of pH, or non-physiological salt concentrations. Denatured DNA is characterized by increased absorbance and decreased viscosity. DNA renaturation is the reformation of the double helix structure when denatured DNA is placed under conditions that allow the strands to reanneal through base pairing. These processes of denaturation and renaturation are important techniques used to understand genome size, genetic relatedness, and repetitive sequences.