PH1123 - DNA and that Flashcards
what are the pyramiding bases ?
The pyrimidine bases are cytosine (C), thymidine (T) and Uracil (U)
monocyclic pyrimidines
What are the Purine bases ?
The purine bases are adenine (A) and guanine (G).
What base is different in DNA and RNA ?
Thymidine in found only in DNA while uracil is found only in RNA.
what are the two sugars in DNA and RNA ?
The sugars in DNA and RNA are pentoses.
They are D-ribose in RNA
and
2-deoxy-D-ribose in DNA.
- In all cases, the sugar is present in a five-membered acetal ring form.
Whats the difference between Beta and alpha glucose ?
Alpha OH group goes downwards
Beta OH group goes upwards (same side as OH group on carbon 5 )
Describe the structure of DNA
DNA is made up of long unbranched chain of oligonucleotides( a polymer of nucleotides), which are linked via a phosphate group that joins the sugar unit with the nucleobase.
- The ester linkage between nucleotides is often a phosphodiester bond.
- The phosphodiester bond links a 5’- of one nucleotide to the 3’-of the next nucleotide.
- Thus, nucleic acids have two ends; 5’- and 3’-ends.
- In some organisms, some bacteria and viruses, the 5’- and 3’-ends of DNA are linked to give circular DNA!
- The base sequence of DNA is written from the 5’- to the 3’-end.
e. g: 5’-ATCCGATG-3’
The nucleobases in DNA have the ability to form hydrogen bonds with between themselves. * This property is essential to the double-helix arrangement of the DNA, translation and transcription via RNA. * The poly nucleotide chain of DNA coils into a helix, which gets bonded to another helical strand by hydrogen bonds between the appropriate base pairs. * In DNA, the base pairs are A-T and C-G. * A-T are bonded by two hydrogen bonds while C-G are bonded by three hydrogen bonds.
The DNA double helix has to poly nucleotide chains twisting on a common axis.
- The bases are directed inwards to allow hydrogen bonding (base pairing).
- The sugar units and the phosphodiester bonds will of the main chains form the outside part of the double helix.
- The planes of the base pairs are perpendicular to the helix axis.
- The helix makes a complete turn every 10 bases.
- The two chains are complementary in sequence. If you know the identity of one chain you can work out the second chain.
- The chains are antiparallel. which means one strand is 5’ to 3’ and the other strand is 3’ to 5’
How many hydrogen bonds form between adenine and thymine and how many between guanine and cytosine
Guanine and cytosine = 3
adenine and thymine = 2
what are the three enzymatically mediated steps in DNA replication ?
initiation, elongation and termination
Explain the process of DNA replication
DNA helices breaks the hydrogen bonds between bases unwinding the DNA double strand.
Each of these unwound strands acts as a template for the synthesis of a new DNA strand
Describe the glycosidic bond between a nucleobase and a sugar unit.
The nucleobase is always linked to the sugar unit through an N-glycosidic bond on carbon 1
The linkage between them is always Beta (the orientation is always going up)
The orientation is always Beta in DNA and RNA
Whats the difference between a nucleotide and a nucleoside ?
Nucleotide = base, sugar and phosphate(s) Nucleoside = base sugar
Describe the nature of the phosphate group in nucleotides
The PHOSPHATE GROUP in the nucleotide is attached via a phospho ester linkage
The phosphate group could be attached to the 5’ hydroxide group or the 3’ hydroxide group
What would the first, second and third phosphates be called in a nucleotide
phosphate 1 (bound to nucleoside) = alpha phosphate 2 = beta phosphate 3 = gamma
What are grooves in DNA
the glycoside bond between sugars and bases of a particular base pair are not directly opposite each other which causes gabs between base pairs
the groove with big gaps is the major groove and the groove with small gaps is the minor groove
the grooves are mainly occupied by water but certain anti cancer agents exploit it and bind to the minor grooves of the DNA stopping the functioning of the DNA.
What do Okazaki fragments do ?
I