Structure and Function of DNA

Genetic information carried in linear sequence of

nucleotides

Complementary base paired strands

Hydrogen bonds between bases holds the two strands

together

Phosphodiester bonds between sugars within each

strand link nucleotides together
DNA double helix
 DNA Components
Nitrogenous Base:
Nitrogen important for hydrogen bonding between
bases
A – Adenine H-bonds T – Thymine (double bond)
C – Cytosine H-bonds G – Guanine (triple bond)
Sugar:
Ribose (5 carbon)
Base covalently bonds with 1’ carbon
Phosphate covalently bonds with 5’ carbon

Backbone: Phosphodiester bonds covalently link sugars

DNA nucleotides compared to RNA nucleotides
Two-ring Purine H-bonds with Single-ring Pyrimidine
 Double helix of DNA

The double helix of DNA:

– Concentration of Adenine (A) is equal to Thymine (T)
– Concentration of Cytosine (C) is equal to Guanine (G).

If A = 10%, G = ? %
 DNA
DNA double helix not symmetric

There are “forward” and “backward” directions

The ends are labeled 5’ and 3’ after the Carbon
atoms in the sugar component.
5’ GGTCGCAAT 3’
3’ CCAGCGTTA 5’
DNA always reads 5’ to 3’ for RNA transcription
and DNA replication
Anti-parallel DNA provides information for
Semi-Conservative Replication
The simple beauty of how the information in
DNA can be copied convinced many that the
“Watson Crick” DNA structure was correct
 Chromosomes
DNA in cell unevenly divided into chromosomes

Humans have 23 chromosomes

Some plants and animals have far more or far
fewer….since chromosomes can be large or
small….the absolute number of chromosomes
is not important
Chromosome number can vary widely between closely
related animals with similar amounts of DNA
 Human DNA has been completely sequenced
Total DNA: 3.2 X 109 base pairs
Most of our DNA has no known function

Genes largely seem to be randomly scattered in

chromosomes
Genes: About 25,000 genes of approximately 25,000 of
about 27,000 base pairs each

Most RNA is transcribed for unknown function, may be

regulating gene expression
Most Genes provide the information for the
amino acid sequence of proteins

Genes:
Promotor or 5’ Regulatory regions: turn genes on
and off
Exons: encode protein amino acid sequence
Introns: Divide the exons
Only a very tiny portion of DNA is in the exons
Genes very unevenly distributed on chromsomes
Genes unevenly distributed chromosomes
 SNP: Single Nucleotide Polymorphism

Humans differ
from one
another in about
1 out of one
thousand
nucleotides.