Frederick Griffith
established the idea of a "transforming agent" capable of being transferred and changing organism's traits; not sure if agent was protein or DNA; used Streptococcus pneumoniae and mice
Oswald Avery
experiment concluded DNA (not protein) is the genetic material (transforming agent); used Streptococcus pneumoniae in culture
Alfred Hershey & Martha Chase
experiment concluded DNA (not protein) is the genetic material (transforming agent); used radioactively tagged bacteriophages
bacteriophage
virus that infects bacteria
James Watson & Francis Crick
devised the double helix model of DNA
Erwin Chargaff
Chargaff's Rules (amount of A = amount of T and amount of G = amount of C)
Rosalind Franklin & Maurice Wilkins
X-ray diffraction photos revealed the double helix structure of the DNA molecule
nucleic acids
biomolecule - CHOPN; subunits - nucleotides; include DNA and RNA
nucleotide
subunit of nucleic acids; composed of a pentose sugar, nitrogenous base, and phosphate group
ribonucleotide
subunit of RNA; nucleotide composed with the pentose sugar ribose
deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA; information storage molecule in the cells of living organisms; contains the code on how to construct proteins
ribonucleic acid
RNA; information molecule that relays genetic code from the nucleus of the cell to the ribosomes in the cytosol
pentose sugar
5 carbon sugar
deoxyribose
5 carbon sugar used in the nucleotides of DNA; has a H bonded off of the 2' carbon
ribose
5 carbon sugar used in the ribonucleotides of RNA; has a OH bonded off of the 2' carbon
nitrogenous base
the bases that form the code of nucleic acids; AGCTU, bonded off the 1' carbon of a nucleotide, single or double ring shaped molecule with C and N in ring
adenine
purine; complementary bonds with thymine or uracil
guanine
purine; complementary bonds with cytosine
cytosine
pyrimidine; complementary bonds with guanine
thymine
pyrimidine in DNA; complementary bonds with adenine
uracil
pyrimidine in RNA; complementary bonds with adenine
purine
double-ringed nitrogenous base; adenine and guanine
pyrimidine
single-ringed nitrogenous base; cytosine, thymine, and uracil
1' - 5' carbons
label the carbons in a pentose sugar clockwise in numerical order starting to the right of the O in the ring
double helix
the structural shape of a molecule of DNA
double stranded
DNA - contains two chains of nucleotides kept together by the hydrogen bonds between the complementary bases
single stranded
RNA - contains one chain of ribonucleotides (only one side of the ladder)
complementary base pairing
hydrogen bonding between matching nitrogenous bases; A - T and C - G
antiparallel
the opposite orientation of the two strands of nucleotides in a molecule of DNA
C-G
joined by 3 hydrogen bonds
A-T
joined by 2 hydrogen bonds
3' end
only place where new nucleotides can be joined to a growing nucleic acid strand
hydrogen bonds
join the nitrogenous bases in double stranded DNA
phosphodiester bonds
the covalent bonds that join nucleotides and create the backbone; link the sugar to the phosphate of the next nucleotide in the strand
major groove
the larger of the two grooves in a DNA double helix; provides a location where a protein or enzyme can bind to a particular sequence of bases
minor groove
the smaller of the two grooves in a DNA double helix