RNA

Md Ekramuddin
Types of necleic acids
Nucleic acids

DNA

In Nucleus

RNA

Cytoplasm
Building Block
RNA
Nucleotides
Phosphates
Pentose
Base
Sugar
Nitrogenous base
BasePurines

Adenine(A)

Guanine(G)

Pyrimidines

Cytosine(C)

Uracil(U)
 Bases

Adenine Guanine
Nucleoside and Nucleotide
 General Features

• Single stranded
• If complementary bases some portion shows
double strand forming hairpin/loop structure
• Uracil present instead of thymine
• Usually present in cytoplasm
• General function is to participate in protein
synthesis
• Unstable in most cases
Types of RNA
RNA

Genetic

In RNA virus

Non-genetic

mRNA

tRNA

rRNA
 mRNA
3

• Messenger and largest RNA carries codons

• Simple linear form
• Monocistronic in eukaryotes, polycistronic in prokaryotes
• Contain 5’leader and 3’trailer sequence
• Formed from hnRNA in eukaryotes
 tRNA
• Transfer RNA as carries
amino acids to site of
protein synthesis
• Smallest(~70-90nts) RNA
and called sRNA
• Three dimensional form
• Have 4 arms and one
variable loop
• Arms are- DHU or D arm,
TC arm, anticodon arm
and adapter(5’CCA3’ arm)
• Ribosomal RNA
• Found to form ribosomes rRNA
• Form nucleolus in
eukaryotes
• Forms secondary hair-pin
loop structure
• In ribosomes of
prokaryotes- 5S,16S,23S
• In ribosomes of eukaryotes-
5S,5.8S,18S,28S rRNA
rRNA in ribosomes
 Other forms of RNA
• snRNA-small nuclear RNA- forms snRNP and involved in
splicing of introns in eukaryotes
• snoRNA-small nucleolar RNA(involves maturation and
assembly of ribosomal RNA)
• siRNA-small interfering RNA or micro RNA(miRNA)
• hnRNA-primary transcript in eukaryotes(hetero-genous
nuclear RNA)
• Catalytic RNA or ribozymes-peptidyl transferase(etc)
• gRNA-guide RNA required for RNA editing
• tmRNA-transfer-messenger RNA in bacteria having dual
properties of mRNA and tRNA