Botany DNA Structure/Cellular Reproduction

What is DNA?

The molecule of life, holds the blueprints of structure and biochemistry passed on from generation to generation, varies greatly from organism to organism

Genome

collection of an organism’s genetic info as genes in a strand of DNA

Genes (information)

production of proteins found in letters A, C, G, & T

DNA base pairs

one kilobase (kb) is 1000 base pairs

How many kb do humans have?

3,000,000

How many kb can plants have?

they can have 100,000 to 100,000,000

Prokaryotes with circular DNA (# of kb)

1700 (methanococcus jannaschii)

What do chloroplasts contain (as well as mitochondria in animal cells)

Circular DNA (refer to endosymbiotic cell theory)

What is the Arbidopsis sequence?

It’s relavent to many human biological functions, many fundamental life processes that are common to all higher organisms

Who discovered DNA structure and what did they learn?

Rosalind Franklin, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins discovered DNA structure in 1953 and they found it it had a double helix shape

How did the scientists discover DNA structure?

They used x-ray crystallography (mainly Rosalind Franklin did the lab experiments)

DNA Semiconservative Replication

New strands are formed within the replication bubbles, the DNA helices forms replication bubbles and the DNA polymerase binds to new nucleotides