UNDERSTANDING

GENETICS
CH. 8 NUCLEOTIDES AND NUCLEIC ACIDS

WHAT IS DNA AND RNA?

DNA holds the key to the hereditary code for the
organism

Stands for deoxyribonucleic acid

RNA is important for making important proteins that

are need by organisms

Stands for ribonucleic acid

Both are important molecules that are essential to all

living organisms
DNA makes RNA that makes proteins

WHAT ARE THEY MADE UP OF?

Three separate components
1) Nitrogenous Base

Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine, and Uracil

2) A Pentose

Ribose for RNA

Deoxyribose for DNA

3) One or more Phosphates

STRUCTURE

As stated before both DNA and RNA contain a pentose, phosphate group(s), and a
nitrogenous base.
But the structurally they differ from each other
RNA is a single strand
DNA is double stranded and runs anti parallel to each other

TYPES OF NITROGENOUS BASES

Purine

Two different kinds

Pyrimidine

Three different kinds

Adenine and Guanine

Structures contain
two rings

Cytosine, Thymine

Uracil (RNA only)

Structure contains only a single ring

BASE PAIRING
Each base in both RNA and DNA
have a specific pair to them.
The pairing for DNA for each
base is
A-T and G-C
For RNA it is a little different
A-U and G-C

REVIEW
1) What are the three main components that make up DNA
and RNA?
2) What are two different ways to distinguish DNA form RNA?
3) Complete the base pairing for the DNA sequence:
:ATCGGTTACGTAATCCA