Structure and Role of Nucleic Acids(study guide)

1. DNA and RNA are both called nucleic acids because they consist of
nucleotides/they are made up of nucleotides, which go on to form
polynucleotides. They are structurally similar as they both contain
nucleotides, a phosphate group, a pentose sugar and organic
bases. These nucleotides act as monomers which makes up the
polymers of DNA and RNA which are both nucleic acids.
2. The five monomers that make up RNA and DNA are the
nucleotides which contains the 5 different organic bases: adenine,
guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil.
3. -Ribose & Deoxyribose- Ribose contains a hydroxyl group on its 2’
while deoxyribose only has a Hydrogen.
- Pyrimidine and purine- purine contains 2 ring structures and
consist of adenine and guanine, while pyrimidine contains one
ring structure and consists of thymine, cytosine and uracil.
- DNA and RNA- DNA has two strands of nucleotides running
antiparallel to one another while RNA only has one strand of
nucleotides. DNA contains the sugar deoxyribose while RNA
contains ribose. DNA containe the base thymine on its
nucleotides while RNA does not have any nucleotides with the
base thymine, but instead uracil.
4. DNA is more stable than RNA because RNA is made up of ribose
and has a hydroxyl group on its 2’ position, which makes it more
reactive for hydrolysis reactions.
5. If the percentage of thymine is 24, then the percentage of
adenine must also be 24, as adenine is complimentary to thymine.
That leaves 52 percent remaining. When that is divided in half,
 there is 26 percent of guanine and 26 percent of cytosine. This is
because guanine is the complimentary base to cytosine.
6. The reason why the ratio is not the same in RNA is because there
are no RNA nucleotides which contain thymine, but it does
contain uracil. Therefore, there adenine will not pair up with
thymine, but it will [air up with uracil.
7. This is because, in one DNA molecule, there are four nucleotides,
one each containing each organic base( A, C, T, G) the
complimentary bases allows this ratio to be 1:1 in DNA as for
every, adenine base there is thymine base, and for every guanine
base there is a cytosine base.
- The reason for this being different for different species is
because, each species has different protein sequences to be
made.

POLYNUCLEOTIDES-

DNA and RNA are both nucleic acid polymers which are made from
nucleotide monomers. Each nucleotide contains a phosphate group,
pentose sugar, and a nitrogen- containing base. Nucleotides are joined
together to form polynucleotides by the formation of phosphodiester
bonds.

DNA-

Contains a double helix structure of two polynucleotides bonded

together by hydrogen bonds. The bases on each nucleotide, forms
hydrogen bonds with the opposite bases on the opposite
nucleotide/polynucleotide. The pentose sugar and the phosphate group
are known as the ‘backbone’ of the strand. DNA strands run antiparallel
to one another as one runs from 5’ to 3’ while the other runs from 3’ to
5’.

DRAW!

TEMPLATE AND BASE PAIRING-

3. replication is important as: existing cells divide to form new cells, and
so the genetic information from the DNA needs to be copied so that the
sequence of base pairs will remain the same and will be able to be
carried forward.

4. before replication can occur, nucleotides need to be synthesised and

this happens in the cytoplasm. This happens so that when the DNA
unzips, the nucleotides can join the existing strand of DNA to form a
new strand.

*LEARN 5 STEPS IN DNA REPLICATION*

*LEARN SHAPES OF ALL BASES*

GENETIC CODE-

DNA stores genetic info for the formation of polypeptides/proteins.

Each triplet of bases called a ‘triplet base’ codes for a specific amino
acid. There are four bases in DNA and hence, there are 64 possible
combinations.

DNA is a template for making messenger RNA/mRNA, which relays the

sequence from the DNA to the ribosome.
 1. The genetic code must be three bases, so that it can match up to
the trna molecule’s anticodon and produce the amino acid which
needs to be coded for.
2. This means that one gene is the length of bases on a DNA
molecule which makes/codes for one polypeptide chain.

The groups of bases on the Mrna molecule is called the ‘codon.’ The
DNA triplets and the RNA codons form the genetic code which specifies
for a specific amino acid. AUG is known as the ‘start codon’

TRANSCRIPTION-

1. A cell needs RNA polymerase which is responsible for assembling

the RNA nucleotides.
3. It does not stop at the stop triplet because there is no amino acid
to be produced from that stop triplet.
4. This is because the DNA molecule consists of thymine nucleotides
whereas the RNA molecule has uracil nucleotides, therefore the
RNA polymerase will need to make sure that the bases are
properly bound to their respective bases.

AMINO ACID ACTIVATION-

1. Amino acid activation- this is where the anticodon on a trna
molecule binds with the codon on a mrna molecule and the amoni
acid being carried on the trna molecule is released and joins the
polypeptide chain.