Protein Synthesis Flashcards
What are the two types of nucleic acid?
DNA and RNA
What are nucleic acids made up of?
Nucleotides
What is a nucleotide?
The monomer from which nucleic acids are formed
What is a nucleotide made up of?
Pentose sugar, nitrogenous base and a phosphoric acid
Are purines double or single ring bases?
Double
What bases are purines?
Adenine and guanine
Are pyrimidines double or single ring bases?
Single
What bases are pyrimidines?
Cytosine, thymine and uracil
What reaction makes up a nucleotide?
Condensation
What reaction joins nucleotides together?
Condensation reactions
What bonds hold nucleotides together?
Phosphodiester bonds
What does DNA polymerase do?
Catalyses the formation of a phosphodiester bond between two nucleotides
What is a phosphodiester bond?
Covalent bond between two nucleotides
What is a nucleic acid?
A very long thread-like macromolecule
How long are RNA molecules?
Relatively short - between 100 and thousands of nucleotides
What pentose is in RNA?
Ribose
What bases are in RNA?
Adenine, cytosine, guanine and uracil
What are the three functional types of RNA?
messenger RNA, transfer RNA and ribosomal RNA
What does mRNA do?
Carries a copy of a single gene to a cell’s ribosome
What does tRNA do?
Carries individual amino acids to the ribosomes during protein synthesis
What does rRNA do?
Forms the subunits of the ribosomes
How long are DNA molecules?
Very long, several million nucleotides