DNA complementarity hybridisation & its application Flashcards
What is DNA?
Polymer or polynucleotide comprising of 4 nucleotides joined together
What does the nitrogenous base comprise of?
A single or double ring, which contains nitrogen and carbon
What is attached to carbon 5 of the ribose sugar?
A phosphate group
Where is the hydroxy group on the ribose sugar?
Carbon 3
Where is the nitrogenous base on the ribose sugar
carbon 1
What are the 4 nucleotides?
Cytosine, Guanine, Thymine, Adenine
What are the 2 molecular structures that the 4 nucleotides fall into?
Pyrimidines
Purines
What are the structural differences between pyrimidines and purines?
Pyrimidine - a single nitrogen ring
Purine- a double nitrogen ring
What are the nucleotides that are pyrimidines?
Cytosine and thymine
What are the nucleotides that are purines?
Guanine and adenine
What are the watson and crick base pairs?
Adenine ad Thymine
Cytosine and Guanine
How many hydrogen bonds form between the base pairs?
Guanine and cytosine form 3 hydrogen bonds
Thymine and Adenine form 2 hydrogen base pairs
Which base pair is stronger?
Guanine and cytosine because they have 3 hydrogen bonds
In RNA which base pair is stronger?
Guanine and Cytosine is still the stronger base pair.
Adenine and Uracil only have 2 base pairs
What molecular structure is uracil?
A pyrimidine like Thymine
What links the sugar phosphate groups?
Phosphodiester bonds
What bonds are present within DNA?
Phosphodiester
For base stacking - Hydrophobic interactions
Van der Waals forces (which are weak but help with stability)
What is the form of DNA that is most common?
B form
What determines the stability of DNA?
Free energy of the molecule and energy minimisation
What can influence the stability of DNA
The molecular environment
How is double stranded DNA formed?
From 2 anti parallel strands that means they have opposite orientation
What overall charge does DNA have?
Negative due to the phosphate groups. This fact is used for gel electrophoresis
DNA denatured
Double strand molecules to a single strand molecule