Nucleic acids

Question 1

What are nucleic acids

Answer 1

Nucleic acids encode all of the genetic information for an organism, 2 types of Nucleic acid, DNA(Deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA(Ribonucleic acid)

Both DNA and RNA and long chains of Nucleotides

Question 2

The flow of information from DNA to RNA to proteins, and the terms transcription and translation

Answer 2

-Transcription is the process of making an RNA copy of a DNA sequence. The copy is called messenger RNA(mRNA)

-Translation is when information encoded in the mRNA directs the addition of amino acids during protein synthesis! Translation takes place on ribosomes in the cells cytoplasm, where mRNA is read and translated into a string of amino acids that make up the synthesized protein.

DNA ————–>RNA ———–> Protein
transcription translation

Question 3

Components of nucleic acids from their structures

Answer 3

phosphate groups, sugar, base

Sugar – Ribose in RNA and Deoxyribose in DNA

Phosphate backbone – The hydroxyl group on carbon – 3’ of one sugar is joined to the hydroxyl group on carbon – 5’ of the next by a phosphodiester link.
-The polynucleotide chain has a direction. One end will have an unreacted 5’ phosphate and the other an unreacted hydroxyl group. The base sequence is always written in the 5’ to 3’ direction.
-It is the sequence of bases along the backbone which encodes the genetic information.

Nitrogenous base
- Purines (Adenine, Guanine)
-Pyrimidines (Cytosine, Thymine, Uracil)

Question 4

Structural differences between RNA and DNA

Answer 4

DNA we have GTAC and RNA GUAC

A goes with T/U
C with G

Strands- DNA is normally double stranded(double helix) while RNA is normally single stranded

Sugars –DNA sugar is Deoxyribose while RNA is ribose

Bases – DNA uses Thymine while RNA uses Uracil

Question 5

Key features of the DNA double helix

Answer 5

-Constant diameter of 2nm

-10 nucleotides per turn of the helix

-The phosphate groups and the sugars lie on the outside next to the water environment

-The bases lie flat on the inside of the helix and from Hydrogen(Van Der Waals bonds between successive bases on the same strand)

-The strands run in opposite directions

-every 0.34nm is 1 base pair, to determine the amount of nucleotides in a given length of DNA strand, just divide the length by 0.34 to get the amount of base pairs, and then times by 2 for the amount of nucleotides.

Question 6

Complementary strands

Answer 6

If a DNA strand reads 5’ A T C G A A T 3’

Then the complementary is 5’ A T T C G A T 3’