Structure of DNA Flashcards
What does DNA stand for?
Deoxyribonucleic acid
What are the repetitive units that build DNA?
Nucleotides
What is a nucleotide made of?
It’s made of phosphate group, deoxyribose sugar, and nitrogenous base.
What are Nucleosides?
It’s just sugar binded with nitrogenous base.
What is a nitrogenous base?
It’s a molecule that is located inside of a DNA and it bind to another nitrogenous base on the other side (complementary nucleotide).
What are 2 types of nucleotides? (Hint: P and P)
Pyrimidines and Purines
What are Pyrimidines?
Nucleotides with ONE carbon ring.
What are Purines?
Nucleotides with TWO carbon rings.
What letters are in Purines and what are in Pyrimidines?
Purines: A and G
Pyrimidines: T and C
How are bonds called that hold together the structure of the DNA from the outside?
Phosphodiester bonds.
What are bonds that hold together nitrogenous bases?
Hydrogen bonds.
What should each complementary nitrogenous base have to bond? How many H-bonds can there be?
One should have 1 ring to bond with 2 or 3 H-bonds to the second with 2 rings.
What is semi-conservative method of DNA replication?
It’s when one parental DNA unwinds and one strand stays as is and new nucleotides bind to it, forming a complimentary strand.
How is a variation of a gene called? (One mom and one dad).
Alleles
What does 5’ and 3’ mean? How are strands arranged?
5 or 3 means that the strand is facing the direction of 5th or 3rd carbon in the sugar ring. The complementary strand of 5’ - 3’ will be 3’ - 5’.
What’s the difference between DNA and RNA?
RNA has Uracil instead Thymine like DNA has. RNA is also single stranded.
