NUCLEIC ACID

Structure and Functions

 Biomedical importance
 Monomeric units or building blocks of nucleic acids.

They form a part of many coenzymes.

Donors of phosphoryl gropups (eg. ATP or GTP), of sugars (UDP- or

GDP-sugars or of lipid (CDP-acylglycerol)

Serve as second messengers (eg. cAMP and cGMP )

Synthetic nucleotides
Synthetic purine and pyrimadine analogs containing halogens, thiols or additional
nitrogen are used for :

chemotherapy of cancer and AIDS

Immunosuppressant for organ transplantation.

 Purine and Pyrimidine

Purines and pyrimidines are nitrogen-containing heterocycles, cyclic compounds

whose rings contain both carbon and other elements (hetero atoms).
Sources of the individual atoms in the
purine ring.
Under physiologic conditions, the amino and oxo tautomers of purines,pyrimidine, and
their derivatives predominate.
 Nucleosides
Nucleosides are derivatives of purines and pyrimidines that have a sugar linked to
a ring nitrogen.

The sugar is linked to the heterocyclic base via a β-N-glycosidic bond, almost always to
N-1 of a pyrimidine or to N-9 of a purine.
 Nucleotides

RNA DNA RNA DNA

 Nucleotides
Nucleostides are present in all type of cells.

Mononucleotides are nucleosides with a phosphoryl group esterfied to a hydrosyl

group of the sugar. 3’- and 5’ –nucleotides are nucleosides with a phosphoryl group
on the 3’ – or 5’ –hydroxyl group of the Sugar.
Ribonucleoside monophosphate, diphosphate, and triphosphate.
Conversion of nucleoside monophosphates to
nucleoside diphosphates and triphosphates.
Conversion of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides.
Cyclic AMP and GMP

Adenylate cyclase
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Dinucleotide
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