Nucleic Acids

Nucleic Acid

stores and transmits genetic material

• stores information

• transfers information

Nucleic acid Function:

• genes

• blueprint for building proteins

  DNA - RNA - proteins

Stores Information:

• blueprint for new cells

• blueprint for next generation

Transfer Information:

DNA & RNA

Ex. of Nucleic Acids:

RNA

single helix

DNA

double helix

monomers = nucleotides

Structure:

• nitrogen base (C-N ring)

• pentose sugar (5C)

• phosphate (PO4) group

3 parts of Nucleotides:

• ribose in RNA

• deoxyribose in DNA

Pentose sugar of RNA & DNA:

• purines

• pyrimidines

Types of Nucleotides:

Purines

double ring N base

Pyrimidines

single ring N base

Purines

adenine (A)

guanine (G)

Pyrimidines

cytosine (C)

thymine (T)

uracil (U)

Nucleic polymer

long chain of nucleotides linked together by phosphodiester bonds.

• sugar to PO4 bond

• phosphodiester bond

• N bases hang off the sugar-phosphate backbone

Nucleic Polymer

Backbone:

• sugar (deoxyribose, ribose)

• phosphate (PO₄) groups.

Backbone of DNA and RNA consists of:

new base

A _____ added to sugar of previous base

one direction

Polymer grows in ___________

Phosphodiester bonds

___________ link nucleotides.

N bases

_____ hang off the sugar-phosphate backbone

• deoxyribose, Double strand – double helix, thymine as a base

• ribose, single-stranded, uracil instead of thymine

3 differences between DNA and RNA:

• DNA

• RNA

Erwin Chargaff

studied amounts of nitrogenous bases in DNA (base pair rule)

Rosalind Franklin – 1952

X-ray diffraction to get pattern from structure of DNA - Responsible for the molecular structure

James Watson & Francis Crick – 1953

published model and paper on DNA structure as a double helix