Manatad, Bryan Axel R.

Bio 152-A
Assignment 3
Nucleic Acids and Chromosomes
1. How can you differentiate the types of nucleic acids? Make a comparison table.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)
 Double Helix (in pairs)  Single helix
 Base pairs: Adenine and Thymine, &  Base pairs: Adenine and Uracil, & Guanine
Guanine and Cytosine and Cytosine
 Deoxyribose in nucleoside (H only)  Ribose in nucleoside (with OH group)
 Three forms: B-form, A-form, and Z-form  More varied in structure and function:
tRNA, rRNA, mRNA, snRNA, siRNA,
miRNA, and lncRNA.
 More stable; less prone to hydrolysis  Less stable; more prone to hydrolysis
because of H group in nucleoside because of OH group in nucleoside
 Not involved in catalysis  Sometimes have catalytic function
(Ribozymes)
 Genetic material  Performs many functions such ass protein
synthesis, catalysis, gene regulation, and
cellular defense against viruses.

2. What constitutes the building blocks of a polynucleotide chain? Make a

diagrammatic representation of the nucleic acid composition. Label the parts.

a) The monomer of polynucleotide chains are nucleotides. It has a nitrogenous

base which can be a purine (adenine and guanine) or pyrimidine (cytosine,
uracil, and thymine), a pentose sugar, and a phosphoric acid residue
(phosphate group).
Phosphate group

Nitrogenous Base

Pentose Sugar
A nucleotide with a
nitrogenous base adenine.

3. In relation to the building blocks of nucleic acids, how do the nucleosides of RNA
and DNA differ?
a) The nucleosides of DNA has a H group on the 2’ carbon of the pentosse
sugar. Their nitrogenous bases are adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.
On the other hand, RNA nucleoside has an OH group on the 2’ carbon of the
pentose sugar. This makes them less stable than DNA because OH group is
prone to hydrolysis. Additionally, RNA has uracil instead of thymine in
addition to the other three nitrogenous bases.
4. If the diploid number of a corn is 20, how many chromosomes are present in the
nucleus of each pollen grain, sperm cell, and egg cell?
a) A corn’s pollen grain will have 2 haploid sperm cells. Each sperm cell has 10
chromosomes in its nucleus, hence a pollen grain will have a total of 20
 chromosomes. Meanwhile, an egg cell is haploid and contains 10
chromosomes in its nucleus.

5. The location of hemophilia C- factor XI is 4q35, where exactly is it? Describe.

a) Hemophilia C-factor XI is located in the q arm or longer arm of chromosome
4. More specifically, it is located within the 5th sub-band of the 3rd band,
which means it is relatively in the middle of the q arm.
6. Referring to image of chromosome 16 below, indicate the exact location of the
genes labelled a-k:
a) The genes are located in 16q24.2.

7. What is the significance of chromosome banding?

a) Chromosome banding allows the scientists to accurately identify the
locations if the genes in the chromosomes based on their length and
centromere position. This is significant as scientists will be able to identify
the specific locations in the chromosome where abnormalities such as
deletion, duplications, inversions,and translocations occur.

8. Why different regions of a chromosome react differently with the stains during
chromosome banding? Discuss.
a). Chromosome banding uses stains that reacts differently based on the
presence or absence of specific type of base pairs in the chromosome. In Q-
banding, for example, the quinacrine dihydrocloride used reacts with the
nitrogen base pair adenine-thymine (A-T), making them less stained (or
brighter) than the rest. Prevalence of A-T pairs means the specific part of
the chromosome is gene-poor. A-T abundance varies in the different
regions on the chromosome, hence different regions react differently with
stains producing the layers of brightly-colored and dark-colored bands.