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DNA and RNA Flashcards

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AP® Biology flashcards
1
Q

What does DNA stand for?

A

Deoxyribonucleic acid

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2
Q

What does RNA stand for?

A

Ribonucleic acid

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3
Q

What is the function of DNA?

A

DNA is used to store genetic information

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4
Q

What is the function of RNA?

A

RNA transfer the genetic information from the DNA to the ribosomes. The Ribosomes then read the transcript genetic information to make polynucleotide strands- this is called translation.

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5
Q

What are ribosomes made from?

A

They are mainly made from RNA and proteins.

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6
Q

Describe the structure of a nucleotide

A

An nucleotide is a type of biological molecule it is also monomer of the polymers DNA and RNA. They are made from 3 different components:

  1. A nitrogen-containing organic base
  2. A phosphate group
  3. A pentose sugar
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7
Q

Describe the structure of a polynucleotide

A

Many nucleotides join together by a condensation reaction, the nucleotides join together by the pentose sugar of one mononucleotide and the phosphate group of another mononucleotide.

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8
Q

What is the bond formed between do mononucleotides?

A

Phosphodiester bond

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9
Q

How is the sugar- phosphate backbone formed?

A

The chain of phosphates and sugars is also known as the sugar phosphate backbone.

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10
Q

Describe the structure of DNA

A
  1. DNA has a double helix- which means that it is made up of two stands that wind round each other to from a spiral
  2. very long and tightly coiled together- this is good as if it is tight and compact it can store a little in a lot of space such as genetic information.
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11
Q

Describe the structure of a DNA nucleotide

A

A DNA nucleotide is made from 3 different components this are a phosphate group, deoxyribose sugar and a nitrogen-containing organic base.
Each DNA nucleotide always will have the same phosphate group and the deoxyribose will also stay the same but the organic bases will vary- they could be either A,T,C, or G.

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12
Q

What does ATCG stand for?

A 
A= Adenine 
T= Thymine 
C= Cytosine 
G= Guanine
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13
Q

How do DNA polynucleotides join together in the middle?

A

By weak hydrogen bonds

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14
Q

What is meant by complementary base pairing?

A

This mean that each base is specific to one of the others, they go in pairs to what is specific to it or what is complementary to it.
Adenine will always bond with Thymine in DNA
Guanine will always bond with Cytosine in DNA

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15
Q

How can you be sure that the bases are only complementary to one another base?

A

Because if there is an equal amount of thymine e.g. 31% there will always been the exact same amount of Adenine, there will be 31% of Adenine.

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16
Q

How many Hydrogen bonds form between the two bases Adenine and Thymine?

A

2

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17
Q

How many hydrogen bonds form between the two bases Guanine and Cytosine?

A

3

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18
Q

Purines and Pyrimidine’s

What are purines and Pyrimidine’s?

A

They are small and big bases ( another name for ATCG.) They group ATCG into two separate groups.

19
Q

Which of the two bases in DNA are purines

A

Adenine and Guanine

20
Q

Which of the three bases in DNA and RNA are classed as pyrimidine’s?

A

Thymine and cytosine in DNA

But Uracil is also a Pyrimidine but Uracil is only involved in RNA not DNA.

21
Q

What do purines always bond with?

A

Pyrimidine’s

22
Q

How does DNA run?

How is this easy to tell?

A

They run antiparallel to each other- it is easy to tell the way that each polynucleotide stand is running as if the strand ends in 3’ it will end in a hydroxyl group and if the DNA strand ends in 5’ then the DNA strand ends in a phosphate group.

23
Q

Why is each of DNA different?

A

Because they run anti-parallel to each other, one end is either 5’ to 3’ or 3’ to 5’.

24
Q

During DNA replication what does the DNA polymerase bind to?

A

During DNA replication the active site of the DNA polymerase is complementary to the 3’ end of the newly forming DNA strand.- so the enzyme can only add nucleotides on the 3’ end of the DNA strand.

25
Q

Due to DNA polymerase only working on the 3’ end of the new DNA strand. What directions does the enzyme work?

A

The new strand is made is made in a 5’ to 3’ direction but this would mean that DNA polymerase works down the template strand in a 3’ to 5’ direction.

26
Q

Due to DNA polymerase only working on the 3’ end of the new DNA strand. What directions does the enzyme work?

A

The new strand is made is made in a 5’ to 3’ direction but this would mean that DNA polymerase works down the template strand in a 3’ to 5’ direction.

27
Q

If the end of a DNA polynucleotide was 3’ what molecule what it end in?
If the end of a DNA polynucleotide was 5’ what molecule what the strand end in?

A

The 3’ would end in a hydroxyl group(OH)

The 5’ would end in a phosphate group.

28
Q

Due to the stands being anti-parallel how does DNA polymerase adapt to this?

A

The DNA polymerase working on one template strand would move in the opposite direction to the strand that is working on the other template strand as the DNA stands run anti-parallel to each other.

29
Q

In melselson and stahl’s experiment what did they grow the bacteria in?

A

They grew the bacteria in two types of nutrient broths- one containing light nitrogen and another containing heavy nitrogen.

30
Q

In melselson and stahl’s experiment what did they do after they left the bacteria to grow in the nutrient broths?

A

They obtained two samples- one of each and spun it in a centrifuge

31
Q

In melselson and stahl’s experiment what was the result of the first spin after they obtained the two samples from each broth?

A

The DNA containing the heavy nitrogen settled down lower in the tube that what the light nitrogen did because he heavy nitrogen is heavier.

32
Q

In melselson and stahl’s experiment what did they do after the first spin in the centrifuge and they found that the DNA containing the heavy nitrogen settled further down than the DNA containing light nitrogen?

A

They then added the DNA containing the heavy nitrogen and added it to a sample of DNA containing light nitrogen and they were left for one round of replication and then spun it again in a centrifuge.

33
Q

In melselson and stahl’s experiment after the second spin what would’ve happened if the replication was conservative, What would you see?

A

If replication was conservative then the original DNA stand containing heavy nitrogen would settle out at the bottom whereas the new stand of DNA containing light nitrogen would settle again at the top.

34
Q

In melselson and stahl’s experiment after the second spin what would’ve happened if the replication was semi-conservative, What would you see?

A

If replication was semi-conservative then the new strand would contain one strand of the original DNA containing heavy nitrogen and one strand of DNA containing light nitrogen and they would settle out n the centrifuge tube between where the DNA strand containing heavy nitrogen and the DNA stand containing light nitrogen would’ve been on the first spin , so in the middle, together.

35
Q

In melselson and stahl’s experiment was the overall result that they proved?

A

They proved that the new stand of DNA contained a mixture of DNA containing heavy nitrogen and a mixture of DNA containing light nitrogen and that they settled out in the middle showing that the bacteria replicated semi-conservatively.

36
Q

in Semi-conservative replication what are the two enzymes are involved?

A

DNA helicase and DNA polymerase

37
Q

In semi conservative DNA in the fist stage what does the enzyme DNA helicase do?

A

DNA helicase breaks the weak hydrogen bonds between the two DNA polynucleotide strands. This unzips the strands into two separate strands.

38
Q

In semi-conservative DNA what do the two separated strands act as? Also include what attaches onto them

A

They act as templates to form new strands so free floating DNA nucleotides attach on the exposed bases complementary to their base. A-T C-G

39
Q

What type of reaction happens to join the new nucleotides together? What enzyme is it catalysed by?

A

A condensation reaction joins the nucleotides together- The reaction is catalysed by the enzyme DNA polymerase.

40
Q

In semi-conservative replication what forms after the action of DNA polymerase joining together the new nucleotides?

A

Hydrogen bonds form again between the complementary bases- 2 between A and T, three between C and G.

41
Q

RNA structure
What components does RNA contain?
(These are similarities to DNA)

A

RNA contains three components:

  1. Ribose pentose sugar
  2. A phosphate group
  3. Nitrogen- containing organic bases
42
Q

RNA structure

Other than the three components how else is RNA structure similar to DNA structure?

A

It is also similar as it also forms polynucleotide chains and it also forms a sugar-phosphate backbone.

43
Q

RNA structure

Give four ways that the structure of RNA differs from the structure of DNA

A
  1. In RNA the pentose sugar is Ribose not deoxyribose but is still a pentose sugar.
  2. Uracil replaces the base thymine but always bonds with adenine in RNA
  3. The nucleotides in RNA join together to form a single polynucleotide chain instead of a double one
  4. RNA chains are much shorter than most DNA chains.

as biology (4 decks)

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