Nucleic Acids Flashcards
What do you call the transfer of characteristics from generation to generation?
Heredity
True or False
All genes lead to the production of proteins and another type of nucleic acids (RNA)
False
not all genes lead to protein production but all lead to RNA production
Genes are stretches of DNA that are transcribed into RNA
Two types of nucleic acids?
DNA & RNA
what do you call the monomers of nucleic acids?
nucleotides
A nucleotide is composed of three simpler units, what’re they?
- base
- monosaccharide
- phosphate
All of the bases of nucleic acids are ____ because they are heterocyclic aromatic amines.
basic
Two types of bases?
Purines & Pyrimidines
Among the bases of nucleic acids, which of them are purines and which are pyrimidines?
- Purine = A & G
- Pyrimidine = T, C, & U
How does thymine differ from uracil structurally?
methyl group at carbon 5
Which N will lose a hydrogen when the bases of nucleic acids bond with monosaccharides?
diff purine w pyrimidine
- Purine = N-9
- Pyrimidine = N-1
based sa carbon numberings sa rings
also remember that purines are double-ringed while pyrimidine isa lang
Sugar component of RNA is what?
D-ribose
Sugar component of DNA?
2-deoxy-D-ribose
Structurally, which Carbon will have the presence or absence of -OH for it to be classified as a sugar of RNA or DNA?
Carbon 2
RNA = may OH sa carbon 2 (D-ribose)
DNA = H lang nasa carbon 2 (2-deoxy-D-ribose)
the combination of a sugar and base is known as a what?
nucleoside
The bases of purines are linked to carbon number what of the monosaccharide to the nitrogen number what of the base?
C-1 to N-9
The bases of pyrimidines are linked to carbon number what of the monosaccharide to the nitrogen number what of the base?
C-1 to N-1
The bases and monosaccharides are connected via a bond called?
B-N-glycosidic bond
What do you call the nucleoside made of adenine and ribose? what about adenine and deoxyribose?
Adenosine; Deoxyadenosine
what do you call a nucleoside bonded to one, two, or three phosphate groups?
nucleotide
When phosphoric acid forms a ____ bond with nucleoside, the result forms a compound known as a nucleotide
phosphate ester bond
or phosphodiester bond
What do you call a nucleoside in which a molecule of phosphoric acid is esterified with an –OH of the monosaccharide, most commonly either at the 3’or the 5’–OH?
Nucleotide
What do you call the common currency into which energy gained from good is converted and stored?
ATP
Adenosine 5’-triphosphate
what are the two parts of the primary structure of nucleotides?
- backbone
- bases that are side-chain grps
the backbone of nucleic acids in its primary structure is composed of what?
alternating monosaccharide and phosphate groups
Each phosphate group forms a phosphate ester bond from the ____ carbon of a monosaccharide unit to the ____ carbon of another monosaccharide
3’; 5’
Similar to proteins, we need a convention to tell us which end to start with when we write the sequence of bases and for nucleotides, we will start where?
nucleotide w/ free 5’ terminus
What do you call the arrangement in which two strands of DNA are coiled around each other in a screw-like fashio?
Double helix
In an aqueous environment, the bases point where? The backbone is where?
inward, outward, inside, outside
inward; outside
bases are hydrophobic; sugar-phosphate group is hydrophilic due to its negative charge
Whose rule stated that the DNA bases form hydrogen bonds to another specific base?
A-T; C-G
Chargaff’s rule
from Erwin Chargaff who showed that quantity of A is similar to T and C to G
How many H-bonds can we find in an A-T complementary base pair?
2 hydrogen bonds
How many H-bonds can we find in an C-G complementary base pair?
3 hydrogen bonds
DNA is coiled around proteins called?
histones
Histones are rich in the basic amino acids what?
Lys & Arg
The negatively-charged DNA molecules and positively-charged histones attract one another and form units called ____.
Nucleosomes
What do you call a core of eight histone molecules around which the DNA helix is wrapped?
Nucleosome
Nucleosomes are further condensed into ____ where a 30-nm-wide fiber forms in which nucleosomes are wound in a ____ fashion, with six nucleosomes forming a repeating unit
Chromatin; Solenoid
Chromatin fibers are organized further into loops and arranged into bands to provide the superstructure of ____?
chromosomes
Identify the level of structure
Order or sequence of bases in the polynucleotide sequence which specifies the genetic code
primary structure
Identify the level of structure
ordered arrangement of nucleic acid strands
Secondary structure
Identify the level of structure
3-D arrangement of all atoms of a nucleic acid; referred to as supercoiling
Tertiary structure
Identify the type of nucleic acid base
Compounds that contain a six-membered ring which are parents of C, T, U
Pyrimidine bases