nucleic acids Flashcards
nucleic acids
informational macromolecules, store hereditary info
what are the three parts of a nucleotide
nitrogenous base, pentose (5 C sugar), phosphate group
what are the nitrogenous bases
(5)
adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, uracil
which nitrogenous bases are pyrimidines
(3)
cytosine, uracil, thymine
which nitrogenous bases are purines
(2)
adenine, guanine
what are the complementary base pairs in DNA
adenine-thymine
guanine-cytosine
what are the complementary base pairs in RNA
adenine-uracil
guanine-cytosine
what reaction takes place in the synthesis of nucleic acids
dehydration synthesis
what bond forms after dehydration in nucleic acids
phosphodiester
describe the antiparallel nature of double stranded DNA molecule
they are oriented in the opposite direction relative to the sugar-phosphate backbone
what are two main differences in DNA and RNA
(2)
- an oxygen atom is missing from deoxyribose on carbon-2 (DNA)
- DNA has thymine and RNA has uracil
