HEREDITY: INHERITANCE and  A DNA is a double helix molecule composed of
complementary deoxyribonucleic units. The
VARIATION
DNA AND RNA
 COMPONENT MOLECULES
1. The DNA molecule is composed of 3 types of component
molecule:
Phosphate group, the sugar deoxyribose, and the bases
adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine 9 (A, T, C G)
 NUCLEOTIDES
2. There are 3 molecules that form the basic building block
of DNA, The nucleotides. Each nucleotide is composed of
one phosphate group, one sugar molecule and one of the
four bases in the example. Across the strands of the
helix, A always pair with G, T with C. Ribonucleic Acid,
like DNA, is a nucleic acid. How ever RNA structure
differs from DNA structure in 3 ways.
DIFFERENCES OF RNA AND DNA
1. RNA is single strand whereas DNA is double stranded.
2. The sugar in RNA is ribose; DNA has deoxyribose.
3. Both DNA and RNA contains four nitrogenous bases, but
instead of thymine, RNA contains a similar base called
Uracil (u) the uracil pair with adenine. The major type of
RNA include; messenger RNA (mRNA), ribosomal RNA
(rRNA) and transfer RNA (RNA).
KEY CONCEPTS
complementary base pairs of the DNA are held by
hydrogen bonds.
 RNA is a single stranded.
 In DNA adenine always bonds with uracil, and cytosine
bonds with guanine.
REPLICATION
 In 1953, JAMES WATSON and FRANCIS CRICK
worked out that DNA is double helix like twisted
staircase. The two sugar phosphate backbones make up
the sides and the base pairs make up the rungs or steps
of the twisted staircase.
 Deoxyribose acid is copied during interphase prior to
mitosis qnd theosis. It is important that new copies are
exactly like the original molecule. The structure of the
DNA provides a mechanism for making accurate copies of
the molecule. The process of making copies of DNA is
called REPLICATION. When the DNA replicates, two
identical copies of DNA molecules are produced, which
are exactly the same as the original.