Biological information

Question 1

What is the make up of nucleic acids?

Answer 1

Nucleotides are made up of three things:

1. 5-Carbon sugar (pentagon)
2. Phosphate group
3. Nitrogenous base (4 alternatives)

Question 2

What is the structure of DNA?

Answer 2

• The DNA is a double helix structure with complementary base pairs
• It’s backbone is made up of alternating sugar-phosphate back bone
• The two strands are anti parallel and are complementary
• Since DNA is so long, it is tightly coiled around proteins called histones to save space
• DNA + Histones= Chromatins. These chromatins further wind up to form chromosomes.

Question 3

What are the types of mutations that occur on nucleic acids?

Answer 3

• Silent Mutations: Codon containing a changed RNA base but codes for the same amino acid
• Missense Mutations: Codon contains a changed RNA base, producing a different amino acid
* Nonsense Mutations: Codon containing changed RNA base results in a termination codon