Nucleic Acids

made of nucleotides (aka their monomers are nucleotides) and are made of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen.

their polymers are DNA and RNA, depending on their 5-C sugar

nucleotides are made of a phosphate group (negatively charged and acidic), a pentose sugar and nitrogenous bases(adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil)

DNA is the common thing ALL living things have (MR H GREN) and contain the genetic information of a cell (they carry genes). Viruses are not considered living because some only have RNA and cannot undergo metabolism.

it is predicted that RNA existed before DNA and evolved to be double stranded

pentose sugar and phosphate are joined together to make DNA and RNA

the backbone of the DNA/RNA is made of the sugar and phosphate group and are covalent phosphodiester bonds which are combined through condensation reactions.

complimentary base pairing (in DNA) is when two single strands of DNA are held together via hydrogen bonding between complementary nitrogenous bases. The bases always create a pair between a purine and pyrimidine. In order to ensure the bases are facing each other and able to pair, the two strands must run in opposite directions (antiparallel)

there are 3 types of RNA

• Messenger RNA (mRNA)

  • messenger RNA carries the genetic code to be transcripted from DNA in polyester synthesis (codes)

• Transfer RNA (tRNA)

  • transfer rrna carries the protein subunits (amino acids) to the mRNA transcript (carries the amino acid)

• Ribosomal RNA. (rRNA)

  • combining the amino acids according to the mRNA sequence (forms the ribosome)