CHAPTER5

THESTRUCTUREANDFUNCTION
OFMACROMOLECULES
SectionE:NucleicAcidsInformationalPolymers
1.
2.
3.
4.

Nucleicacidsstoreandtransmithereditaryinformation
Anucleicacidstrandisapolymerofnucleotides
InheritanceisbasedonreplicationoftheDNAdoublehelix
WecanuseDNAandproteinsastapemeasuresofevolution

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Introduction
Theaminoacidsequenceofapolypeptideis
programmedbyagene.
AgeneconsistsofregionsofDNA,apolymerof
nucleicacids.
DNA(andtheirgenes)ispassedbythemechanisms
ofinheritance.

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1.Nucleicacidsstoreandtransmit
hereditaryinformation
Therearetwotypesofnucleicacids:ribonucleic
acid(RNA)anddeoxyribonucleicacid(DNA).
DNAprovidesdirectionforitsownreplication.
DNAalsodirectsRNAsynthesisand,throughRNA,
controlsproteinsynthesis.

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 OrganismsinheritDNAfromtheirparents.
EachDNAmoleculeisverylongandusuallyconsistsof
hundredstothousandsofgenes.
Whenacellreproducesitselfbydividing,itsDNAis
copiedandpassedtothenextgenerationofcells.

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 WhileDNAhastheinformationforallthecells
activities,itisnotdirectlyinvolvedinthedaytoday
operationsofthecell.
Proteinsareresponsibleforimplementingtheinstructions
containedinDNA.

EachgenealongaDNAmoleculedirectsthe
synthesisofaspecifictypeofmessengerRNA
molecule(mRNA).
ThemRNAinteractswiththeproteinsynthesizing
machinerytodirecttheorderingofaminoacidsina
polypeptide.
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 TheflowofgeneticinformationisfromDNA>RNA
>protein.
Proteinsynthesisoccurs
incellularstructures
calledribosomes.
Ineukaryotes,DNAis
locatedinthenucleus,
butmostribosomesare
inthecytoplasmwith
mRNAasan
intermediary.

Fig.5.28
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2.Anucleicacidstrandisapolymerof
nucleotides
Nucleicacidsarepolymersofmonomerscalled
nucleotides.
Eachnucleotideconsistsofthreeparts:anitrogen
base,apentosesugar,andaphosphategroup.

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Fig.5.29
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 Thenitrogenbases,ringsofcarbonandnitrogen,
comeintwotypes:purinesandpyrimidines.
Pyrimidineshaveasinglesixmemberedring.
Thethreedifferentpyrimidines,cytosine(C),thymine
(T),anduracil(U)differinatomsattachedtothering.
Purinehaveasixmemberedringjoinedtoafive
memberedring.
Thetwopurinesareadenine(A)andguanine(G).

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 Thepentosejoinedtothenitrogenbaseisribosein
nucleotidesofRNAanddeoxyriboseinDNA.
Theonlydifferencebetweenthesugarsisthelackofan
oxygenatomoncarbontwoindeoxyribose.
Thecombinationofapentoseandnucleicacidisa
nucleoside.

Theadditionofaphosphategroupcreatesa
nucleosidemonophosphateornucleotide.

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 Polynucleotidesaresynthesizedbyconnectingthe
sugarsofonenucleotidetothephosphateofthe
nextwithaphosphodiesterlink.
Thiscreatesarepeatingbackboneofsugar
phosphateunitswiththenitrogenbasesas
appendages.

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 ThesequenceofnitrogenbasesalongaDNAor
mRNApolymerisuniqueforeachgene.
Genesarenormallyhundredstothousandsof
nucleotideslong.
Thenumberofpossiblecombinationsofthefour
DNAbasesislimitless.
Thelinearorderofbasesinagenespecifiesthe
orderofaminoacidstheprimarystructureofa
protein.
Theprimarystructureinturndeterminesthree
dimensionalconformationandfunction.
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3.Inheritanceisbasedonreplicationofthe
DNAdoublehelix
AnRNAmoleculeissinglepolynucleotidechain.
DNAmoleculeshavetwopolynucleotidestrands
thatspiralaroundanimaginaryaxistoforma
doublehelix.
Thedoublehelixwasfirstproposedasthestructureof
DNAin1953byJamesWatsonandFrancisCrick.

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 Thesugarphosphatebackbonesofthetwo
polynucleotidesareontheoutsideofthehelix.
Pairsofnitrogenous
bases,onefromeach
strand,connectthe
polynucleotidechains
withhydrogenbonds.
MostDNAmolecules
havethousandsto
millionsofbasepairs.
Fig.5.30
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 Becauseoftheirshapes,onlysomebasesare
compatiblewitheachother.
Adenine(A)alwayspairswiththymine(T)andguanine
(G)withcytosine(C).

Withthesebasepairingrules,ifweknowthe
sequenceofbasesononestrand,weknowthe
sequenceontheoppositestrand.
Thetwostrandsarecomplementary.

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 Duringpreparationsforcelldivisioneachofthe
strandsservesasatemplatetoordernucleotidesinto
anewcomplementarystrand.
Thisresultsintwoidenticalcopiesoftheoriginal
doublestrandedDNAmolecule.
Thecopiesarethendistributedtothedaughtercells.

Thismechanismensuresthatthegenetic
informationistransmittedwheneveracell
reproduces.

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4.WecanuseDNAandproteinsastape
measuresofevolution
Genes(DNA)andtheirproducts(proteins)
documentthehereditarybackgroundofan
organism.
BecauseDNAmoleculesarepassedfromparentsto
offspring,siblingshavegreatersimilaritythando
unrelatedindividualsofthesamespecies.
Thisargumentcanbeextendedtodevelopa
moleculargenealogybetweenspecies.

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 Twospeciesthatappeartobecloselyrelatedbased
onfossilandmolecularevidenceshouldalsobe
moresimilarinDNAandproteinsequencesthanare
moredistantlyrelatedspecies.
Infact,thesequenceofaminoacidsinhemoglobin
moleculesdifferbyonlyoneaminoacidbetweenhumans
andgorilla.
Moredistantlyrelatedspecieshavemoredifferences.

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Copyright2002PearsonEducation,Inc.,publishingasBenjaminCummings