Nucleic acid

Question 1

What is nucleic acid?

Answer 1

a chain of repeating nucleotides

Question 2

what are the two types of nucleic acids?

Answer 2

RNA
DNA

Question 3

How does the shape of DNA and RNA differ?

Answer 3

DNA: double helix
RNA: many shapes

Question 4

how does the sugar differ between DNA + RNA?

Answer 4

DNA: deoxyribose
RNA: ribose

Question 5

Which one is the permanent genetic material RNA or DNA?

Answer 5

DNA

Question 6

How do the number of strands differ between RNA and DNA?

Answer 6

DNA: double
RNA: single

Question 7

What two bases are different between RNA and DNA?

Answer 7

DNA: thymine
RNA: uracil

Question 8

The two strands of DNA run ………-……………. to each other.

Answer 8

anti-parallel

Question 9

What does it mean when DNA strands run anti-parallel to each other?

Answer 9

one runs 5’ to 3’ directionality and the other 3’ to 5’

Question 10

what type of bonding is between base pairs in DNA?

Answer 10

hydrogen

Question 11

what are tandem repeats?

Answer 11

sequences in the DNA that are repeated multiple times.

Question 12

How do tandem repeats present in different people?

Answer 12

different lengths for everybody

Question 13

What are the steps of DNA profiling?

Answer 13

1. DNA is extracted from a sample
2. specific tandem repeat areas are amplified using PCR
3. amplified fragments are separated by size
4. results are compared to other sample

Question 14

Describe the hershey-chase experiment

Answer 14

1. bacteriophages were labelled with radioactive sulfur for proteins and phosphorus for DNA
2. phagfes were allowed to infect bacteria
3. Phosphorus was found in the bacteria
4. therefore DNA is the main genetic material

Question 15

In what structure is DNA packaged into?

Answer 15

nucleosomes

Question 16

What is the structure of nucleosomes?

Answer 16

• DNA wraps around core made up of 8 histones
• nucleosomes are joined by linker DNA
• nucleosomes are stacked on top of each other creating chromosomes.

Question 17

What was chargaff’s findings?

Answer 17

amount of A=T and G=C

Question 18

How many hydrogen bonds are between A=T?

Answer 18

2

Question 19

How many hydrogen bonds are between G=C?

Answer 19

3

Question 20

which bases are purines?

Answer 20

A + G

Question 21

Which bases are pyrimidines?

Answer 21

T + C + U

Question 22

What are the benefits of complementary base pairings between purines and pyrimidines?

Answer 22

ensures distance between the two strands are always consistent –> stable

Question 23

What is the structure of nucleic acid?

Answer 23

• 1 phosphate
• 1 pentose
• nitrogeneous base

Question 24

What are purines?

Answer 24

bases with two rings

Question 25

What are pyrimidines?

Answer 25

bases with three rings