Concept 5.5 Nucleic Acids

What do Polypeptides determine?

A protein's shape

What are Nucleic acids?

polymers called nucleotides

What does Deoxyribonucleic acids and Ribonucleic acids do?

They enable organisms to reproduce genes

What is Gene Expression?

DNA directs RNA synthesis and controls protein synthesis

What is the function of mRNA?

RNA that directs production of polypeptides

Where are ribosomes in an Eukaryotic cell?

The cytoplasm

What do Prokaryotic cells lack?

Nuclei

What is a Polynucleotide?

Nucleic acids that are polymers

How many phosphate groups does a polynucleotide have and how many are lost during polymerization?

Three and two

What is the portion without the phosphate group called?

Nucleoside

What is a Pyrimidine?

A six-membered ring of carbon and nitrogen

What is a Purine?

A large six-membered ring fused to a five member ring

What does Pyrimidine contain?

Cytosine, Thymine, Uracil

What does Purine contain?

Adenine and Guanine

What are found in both DNA and RNA?

Adenine, guanine, and cytosine

What is only found in DNA and what is only found in RNA?

Thymine and Uracil

How is Adenine and Thymine connected?

Double H-bonds

How is Guanine and Cytosine connected?

Triple H-bonds

Linkage of nucleotides into polynucleotides requires a...

Condensation reaction

What is Phosphodiester linkage?

A phosphate group that covalently links the sugars of two nucleotides

What does Phosphodiester create?

sugar-phosphate backbones