Nucleic acids1+2 Flashcards
monomers are built up into polymers using increasing lengths?
Dimer
Trimer
Up to short polymers of unspecified length= oligomers
Are nucleic acids homo or hetero polymers?
heteropolymers
Describe the role of DNA?
Universal information store across all 3 Domains of Life.
DNA is stable, repairable, easy to transcribe and to copy.
* Only role is information storage. Good for long-term storage.
* Double stranded (except in some viruses or in damaged cells).
What bases are cytosine (C), thymine (T), uracil (U)?
What bases are guanine (G), adenine (A)?
Pyrimidine bases: cytosine (C), thymine (T), uracil (U).
Purine bases: guanine (G), adenine (A).
These are not monomers of the acid
What is the structure of a nucleotide and order of formation?
A base bound to a pentose (C5) sugar = nucleoside
(sugar = ribose in RNA, 2-deoxyribose in DNA)
A nucleoside bound to a phosphate group = nucleotide
Nucleotides are the monomers of nucleic acids
What are the bases for RNA?
What are the ribonucleosides?
What are the ribonucleotides?
What’s the name for CMP?
Bases: cytosine (C), uracil (U), adenine (A), guanine (G)
ribonucleosides: cytidine (C), uridine (U), adenosine (A), guanosine (G)
ribonucleotides: CMP, UMP, AMP, GMP
(e.g. cytidine 5′-monophosphate, CMP)
What are the bases for DNA?
What are the deoxyribonucleosides?
What are the deoxyribonucleotides?
What’s the name for dCMP?
Bases: cytosine (C), thymine (T), adenine (A), guanine (G)
deoxyribonucleosides: deoxycytidine (dC), thymidine (dT), deoxyadenosine(dA), deoxyguanosine (dG).
deoxyribonucleotides: dCMP, dTMP, dAMP, dGMP
(e.g. deoxycytidine 5′-monophosphate, dCMP)
Why do we use the prime (‘)
When there are two or more rings we can use the prime to distinguish which ring is which so the bigger ring is 1,2,3,4,5 whereas the smaller ring is 1’,2’,3’,4’,5’.
What is the link/bond between the phosphate group and the sugar in a nucleotide?
3′-5′-phosphodiester link
Base pairs are held by hydrogen bonds explain?
G and C pair with 3 hydrogen bonds but A andT(U) pair with 2 – thus, G-C pair is bound more strongly.
Heating a nucleic acid solution will unpair the bases by breaking the hydrogen bonds. Higher G+C fraction of the DNA molecule, the higher the melting
temperature.
What do things living in a hotter environment tend to have more of in their DNA as an evolutionary advantage?
They contain more G’s and C’S as these form 3 hydrogen bonds so stronger to prevent strands from separating at a higher temperature.
What is Chargaff’s Rule 1 and the unit used?
%A = %T and %G = %C
Conventionally we measure the G+C fraction (or G+C content) of DNA and it’s in the odd unit of mol% (percentage of the molecule aka % mol/mol)
What are the 3 types of DNA and where are they found?
B-DNA (right-hand helix, 2.0 nm diameter), which is the
most abundant form in Nature.
A-DNA (right-hand helix, 2.6 nm diameter) – discovered by Franklin – forms when B-DNA is dehydrated. Found therefore in many Bacteria and Archaea at low water activity (e.g. in seawater, in hypersaline lakes). Also found in some viruses.
Z-DNA (left-hand helix, 1.8 nm diameter) – discovered by Mitsui et al. – found commonly in DNA of Eukarya when being transcribed into mRNA. Also found in
many H. sapiens cancers.
C-DNA (not found in Nature).
There are also triple-stranded forms important in some human pathologies.
When two complementary strands of B-DNA are in solution around pH 7, they will spontaneously coil to form right-handed double helix. Explain characteristics of B-DNA?
2.0 nm diameter
BASES on the inside, paired PHOSPHATE on the outside
Distance from base to base along strand
= 0.34 nm (3.4 Å)
Distance of one wavelength of helix
= 3.4 nm (34 Å)
1 minor groove.
2 major grooves.
Explain where the bonds are in a double helix of B-DNA
Hydrogen bonding between complementary bases on opposite strands and between sugars in backbone.
Hydrophobic interactions and some van der Vals interactions between rings of adjacent bases on same strand.
Ionic bonding between 3D-adjacent phosphate groups on the backbone.
Describe structure and role of DNA in Bacteria and Archaea
Majority of taxa in these two Domains do not have membrane bound nuclei, the DNA is ‘naked’ in the cytosol.
* No histones/proteins associated to the DNA.
* DNA is circular (linear in Eukarya).
* Usually 1-2 chromosomes (all the core DNA).
* Often smaller replicons (i.e. plasmids, megaplasmids, chromids)
– also circular, contain non-critical DNA and are used in vitro for molecular biology, molecular ecology etc as cloning vectors.
* Circular DNA is often supercoiled – gives it structural stability
and helps it form a more compact shape. Organisms resistant to heat, radiation etc have very tight supercoiling into complex shapes.
* Mitochondria and plastids were once Bacteria, so have same DNA properties in their genomes as Bacteria have.
When is B-DNA converted to Z-DNA in vivo?
During transcription.
DNA organisation in Eukarya
- All Eukarya have membrane-bound nuclei where the
DNA is contained. - DNA is protein-associated to stabilise it.
- DNA is linear
- Chromosome number varies a lot.
- No non-chromosomal DNA in the nucleus.
DNA packaging starting from DNA double helix to a chromosome.
Chromosomal DNA is packaged inside microscopic nuclei with the help of histones. These are positively-charged proteins that strongly adhere to negatively-charged DNA and form complexes called nucleosomes. Each nucleosome is composed of DNA wound 1.65 (2) times around eight histone proteins. Nucleosomes fold up to form a 30-nanometer chromatin fiber, which forms loops averaging 300 nanometers in length. The 300 nm fibers are compressed and folded to produce a wider fiber, which is tightly coiled into the chromatid of a chromosome.
Explain chromatin
The key difference between chromatin and nucleosome is that chromatin is a whole structure of complex DNA and proteins while nucleosome is a basic unit of chromatin.
complex of DNA and proteins = chromatin contains an outer compact heterochromatin (stuff that isn’t used goes on outer edge as this).
inner areas contain euchromatin (active so less dense,)
Explain further of nucleosomes and types of histone proteins
- Most of the protein content is histones (H1, H2a,
H2b, H3 and H4). - At 20 nm spacing along DNA strand are
nucleosomes (DNA wound around hydrophobic
histones). - Nucleosomes are separated by linker DNA.
- Several nucleosomes and linker DNA are termed a
polynucleosome. - Polynucleosomes coil to form a fibre 30 nm in
diameter. - Fibre is supported by scaffold proteins to form a 300
nm strand with looped domains. - Strand folds further to form 700 nm diameter
condensed active chromosome. The very family “Xshaped” chromosomes only form at metaphase and
require additional scaffold proteins – they are about
1,400 nm across the top of the “X”
Ribonucleic acids (RNA)
mRNA
rRNA
tRNA
- Usually single stranded but can form hairpin loops etc with
complementary sequences coming together. - mRNA – messenger RNA, used in transfer of information from DNA
to ribosome for protein synthesis. - rRNA – ribosomal RNA, forms part of the structure of the ribosome and catalyses the formation of peptide bonds.
- tRNA – transfer RNA, traffics amino acids around the cell to the ribosome.
Explain simply DNA transcription
- Information from DNA is copied into a strand of mRNA:
- mRNA encodes amino acid sequence in the form of triplets (groups of 3 bases –which form codons, each encoding an
amino acid. - Which amino acids each codon encodes is the genetic code. Note this is NOT universal.
Explain start and stop codons.
mRNA translation happens on the ribosome
* Start codons usually encode methionine (Met/M) as the first amino acid in the protein strand.
* Stop codons don’t encode an amino acid, they just terminate
translation and make the mRNA fall off of the ribosome.
