BENGUET STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Department of Biology

BIO 45 NAME OF STUDENT: COURSE & YR:

CELLULAR
AND _________________________________________________________ ________________________
MOLECULAR
BIOLOGY

WEEK 2-3 MODULE 1 PREPARED BY:

LEARNING BIOCHEMISTRY OF THE CELL

MATERIAL
2.3

MERLYN C. DENESIA
Faculty-in-Charge
Email: m.denesia@bsu.edu.ph
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1: Describe the components of the nucleic acids
2. Differentiate mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA

HOW TO EXTRACT DNA FROM STRAWBERRY?

E Materials Needed:
N Strawberry, Zip lock, filter paper (the one used in coffee maker is okay), Salt, Liquid detergent,
G ordinary rubbing alcohol (isopropyl), water, cups (transparent preferably)
A
G
Procedure:
E
1. Put 1 or 2 pieces of strawberries inside a zip lock.
2. Squeeze the strawberries until it becomes a puree.
3. Prepare a mixture of 2 teaspoons of liquid detergent, 1 teaspoon of salt, and half cup of water. Mix them
thoroughly.
4. Slowly pour the mixture inside the zip lock with mashed strawberries. Carefully mix them together
without producing too much bubbles.
5. Filter it out in an empty cup using filter paper to remove the solid strawberries.
6. Pour out just as much isopropyl alcohol into the cup with the filtrate.
7. Here, you can observe that there will be visible partition of liquids because of the difference in densities.
The filtrate (reddish in color) is at the bottom, alcohol on top.
8. There will be a formation of slimy thing, whitish in color. This will be the extracted DNA of the strawberry.

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 9. Take a photo of your set-up for documentation.
10. Answer questions under EVALUATE. A separate answer sheet will be posted.

LECTURE: BIOCHEMISTRY OF THE CELL

Time Allotted: 5 hours

E
X
P IV. NUCLEIC ACIDS
L
O INTRODUCTION
R
E The fourth group of biomolecules is the nucleic acids. Nucleic acids are made of carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorous atoms. Nucleic acids store and transfer cellular
information and transfer energy in all living organisms. They are made of small repeating units or
building blocks called nucleotides. Nucleotides consist of three parts, a 5-carbon sugar, a
nitrogenous base, and a phosphate group. Nucleotides are linked together when a bond forms
between the phosphate group on one nucleotide and the sugar group on another nucleotide.

Fig. 1. Basic Chemical Structure of Nucleotides

Molecules that contain only a sugar and a nitrogenous base (no phosphate) are called
nucleosides. The nitrogenous bases found in nucleic acids include adenine and guanine (called
purine) and cytosine, uracil, or thymine (called pyrimidines). There are two sugars found in
nucleotides – deoxyribose and ribose.

Two types of nucleic acids

1. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) – This store hereditary information in small segments called genes.
When a cell divides, its DNA is copied and passed from one cell generation to the next. This is
organized into chromosomes and found within the nucleus of our cells. DNA commonly exists as a
double-stranded molecule with a twisted double-helix shape (see Fig. 3).

2. Ribonucleic acid (RNA) – This delivers gene information from DNA to create protein. Other RNA
molecules are active, molecules that regulate and help chemical reactions occur inside cells

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 (ribozymes). RNA is essential for the synthesis of proteins. Information contained with the genetic
code is typically passed from DNA to RNA to the resulting proteins.

Types of RNA:
a. Messenger RNA (mRNA) is the RNA transcript or RNA copy of the DNA message produced
during DNA transcription. Messenger RNA is translated to form proteins.

b. Transfer RNA (tRNA) has three-dimensional shape and is necessary for the translation of
mRNA in protein synthesis.

c. Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) is a component of ribosomes and is also involved in protein synthesis

Fig 2. Structure of a basic nucleotide, sugars (b), and the nitrogenous bases (c)

One difference between DNA and RNA are in the sugars that make up their nucleotides.
Only two 5-carbon sugars are found in nature: ribose and deoxyribose. Deoxyribose is a ribose
derivative in which an oxygen atom is missing from one carbon; the carbon was deoxygenated.
DNA contains deoxyribose sugars in their nucleotides while RNA contains ribose sugar in the
nucleotides. By having one less oxygen this makes DNA more stable than RNA.

Another difference in between DNA and RNA is the nucleotides that bond together. DNA
and RNA are both composed of only 4 nucleotides. Adenine, cytosine, and guanine make up both
DNA and RNA. The difference occurs in the fourth nucleotide. In DNA, this nucleotide is thymine
but in RNA it is replaced by the nucleotide uracil. The sugar and phosphate groups are identical
(except for the oxygen on the sugars), the part of the nucleotide that is different is the nitrogenous
base.

DNA and RNA also look different structurally. DNA when assembled forms a two-stranded
molecule whereas RNA forms just a single stranded molecule. In DNA, the bases on the nucleotides
pair up other bases form the other strand. Adenine bases will only pair with thymine bases (A & T)
and Cytosine bases will only pair with guanine bases (C & G). Although RNA is not double stranded,
within cells different strands of RNA will often pair up in the process of constructing proteins. Just
like in DNA cytosine and guanine pair up but adenine pairs up with uracil.

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 Fig. 3. Structural difference of RNA and DNA

TABLE 1. Summary of Differences between DNA and RNA

DNA RNA
Strand Double stranded Single stranded
Structure Antiparallel helix Hairpin and loops
Sugar Deoxyribose Ribose
Location Nucleus or mitochondria Nucleus or cytoplasm
Types Nuclear DNA, mitochondrial mRNA
DNA (mtDNA) rRNA
tRNA
Nitrogenous Bases Adenine (A) Adenine (A)
Cytosine (C) Cytosine (C)
Guanine (G) Guanine (G)
Thymine (T) Uracil (U)
Stability More stable Less stable due to presence of the
2’ hydroxyl on ribose that makes
RNA much more prone to
hydrolysis

Key Takeaways for Nucleic Acids

➢ Nucleic acids are macromolecules that store genetic information and enable protein
production

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 ➢ Nucleic acids include DNA and RNA. These molecules are composed of long strands of
nucleotides
➢ Nucleotides are composed of a nitrogenous base, a five-carbon (pentose) sugar, and a
phosphate group.
➢ DNA is composed of a phosphate-deoxyribose sugar backbone and the nitrogenous bases
adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T).
➢ RNA has ribose sugar and the nitrogenous bases (A, G, C, and U)

ACTIVITY: ACTIVITY 2: THE NUCLEIC ACIDS

Assessment: Summative
E
Instructions: Answer the questions accordingly under ACTIVITY 2: THE NUCLEIC ACIDS.
V
A Scoring: Scores will be specified in each item.
L
U
A
T
E
Ahern, K., I. Rajagopal, and T. Tan. 2019. Biochemistry for All. Structure and Function of Nucleic
Acids. Version 1.3.

R Blanco, A. and G. Blanco. 2017. Enzymes. Pediatric Critical Care. 4 th Edition.

E
F Heda, R. F. Toro and C. Tombazzi. 2020. Physiology, Pepsin. StatPearls Publishing.
E
R Raveendran, S., B. Parameswaran, S. Ummalyma, A. Abraham, A. Matthew, A. Madhavan, S.
E Rebello, and A. Pandey. 2018. Applications of Microbial Enzymes in Food Industry. Food
N Technol Biotechnol. 56(1)16-30.
C
E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNASRkIU5Fw
S https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apaP9a079po

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