Nucleic Acids and DNA, RNA Flashcards
What are examples of nucleic acids?
DNA and RNA
What is the structure of a nucleic acid?
Polynucleotide (a polymer of nucleotides)
What are the parts of a nucleotide?
Pentose sugar, phosphate group, nitrogenous base.
What are the nitrogenous bases?
Purines (larger): adenine, guanine.
Pyrimidines (smaller): cytosine, thymine, uracil
How do nucleotides form a polymer?
Condensation reactions.
What are the differences between DNA and RNA?
DNA has 2 strands, RNA has 1 strand. DNA’s nitrogenous bases are A,T,C,G. RNA’s nitrogenous bases are A,U,C,G. DNA has deoxyribose sugar and RNA has ribose sugar.
What was the Hershey and Chase experiment?
They used phages with radioactively labeled sulfur and phsophorus. Sulfur is in protein, phosphorus is in DNA, only phosphorus was found in host cell. Determined that DNA is not a protein but a hereditary material.
What did Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins discover through X-Ray Diffraction investigation?
Discovered that the cross indicated a helical shape and the angle of the cross showed the angle of a helix.
What did Watson and Crick (1953) achieve?
Using the x-ray diffraction data, Watson and Crick built the first accurate model of DNA structure.
What is the structure of DNA?
Consists of a double helix and a nucleotide. The Double Helix consists of a sugar/phosphate backbone and nitrogen bases (rungs). The three parts of a nucleotide are sugar (deoxyribose), phosphate group, and nitrogenous bases (t,a,c,g). It is anti parallel, meaning sugar/phosphate backbones run in opposite directions.
Describe base pairing.
Ratio of nucleotide bases are A=T and C=G. Base pairing of complementary bases are due to hydrogen bonding (A-T has 2 hydrogen bonds, C-G has 3 hydrogen bonds).
