Basic Cell Chemistry

Question 1

What are the four types of Macromolecules and their Subunits?

(proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids can also be referred to as polymers and their subunit’s monomers, because they are a long chain of their monomers)

Answer 1

Proteins - amino acids
Carbohydrates - monosaccharides
Nucleic Acids - nucleotides
Lipids - fatty acids and glycerol

Question 2

Why are Nucleic Acids important?

Answer 2

Due to their role in synthesising proteins.

Question 3

What is the structure of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)?

Answer 3

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix.

Question 4

What is the structure of Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)?

Answer 4

RNA is made up of nucleotides, which are ribose sugars attached to nitrogenous bases and phosphate groups. RNA mostly exists in the single-stranded form

Question 5

What’s the difference between DNA and RNA?

Answer 5

Question 6

List the Bases/Base Pairs in DNA

Answer 6

Adenine + Thymine
Guanine + Cytosine

Question 7

List the Bases/Base Pairs in RNA

Answer 7

Adenine + Uracil
Guanine + Cytosine

Question 8

What are Pyrimidines and Purines?

Answer 8

Purines (adenine and guanine) are two-carbon nitrogen ring bases while pyrimidines (cytosine uracil and thymine) are one-carbon nitrogen ring bases.

Question 9

What Bonding is present in DNA?

Answer 9

There are three types of bonds present in DNA they’re hydrogen bonds, Phosphodiester bonds and glycoside bonds, where Phosphodiester bonds exist between the nucleotides, hydrogen bond exists between the nitrogenous base and glycoside bonds exist between the pentose sugar molecule and a nitrogenous base.

Question 10

What is the role of DNA?

Answer 10

DNA contains the instructions needed for an organism to develop, survive and reproduce

Question 11

What is the role of Messenger RNA (mRNA)?

Answer 11

mRNA carries the instructions to make proteins from the DNA in a cell’s nucleus to the cell’s cytoplasm where the protein-making machinery reads the mRNA sequence and translates each three-base codon into its corresponding amino acid in a growing protein chain.

Question 12

What is the role of Transfer RNA (tRNA)?

Answer 12

tRNA helps decode a messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence into a protein.

Question 13

What is the role of Ribosomal RNA (rRNA)?

Answer 13

rRNA is responsible for linking the amino acids in a pre-determined order to form proteins. It serves as the primary building block for both ribosomes and the assembly line on which protein synthesis occurs.

Question 14

What are proteins?

Answer 14

Proteins are functional structures made up of one or more polypeptides. Some proteins can have multiple polypeptides.

Question 15

What are polypeptides?

Answer 15

A polypeptide is a single polymer of amino acids.

Question 16

What does Universal mean in terms of Genetic Code Nature, provide an example

Answer 16

‘universal’ or standard genetic code defines the correspondence between the ‘20’ amino acids in proteins and groups of ‘three’ bases (codons) in the mRNA. DNA is considered a universal genetic code because every known living organism has genes made of DNA.

Question 17

What does Redundant/ Degenerate mean in terms of Genetic Code Nature

Answer 17

Genetic code is described as degenerate, or redundant, because a single amino acid may be coded for by more than one codon.

Question 18

What does Unambiguous mean in terms of Genetic Code Nature

Answer 18

When we say the genetic code is unambiguous, it means that each codon specifies only one amino acid. For example, the codon UUU will always code for the amino acid phenylalanine and nothing else.