NUCLEIC ACIDS: INTRODUCTION NUCLEOTIDES AND NUCLEIC ACIDS

- located in the nucleus

- nucleus contains chromosomes Nucleotide
- basic components of nucleic acids
Chromosome
 2 major parts: the 2 sister chromatids
 Telomere: endpoints of chromatids. The
cap which protects the DNA for further
damage
 Centromere: where the two sister
chromatids join.

DNA is coiled around histones forming

chromosome.

CHROMOSOMES AND GENES 3 components:

- Ribose sugar (pentose)
Chromosome - Phosphate group
- Structure in the cell nucleus thought to be - Nitrogenous base
the carrier of genetic information

Gene
- portion of a chromosome that controlled a
specific inheritable trait

TIMELINE, PEOPLE, AND THEIR

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Gregor Mendel (heredity)

• Thomas Hunt Morgan (flies, linkage)
• Frederick Griffith (1928: transformation and
mice)
• Oswald Theodore Avery, Colin MacLeod
and Maclyn McCarty (1944: DNA as the
transforming agent)
• Erwin Chargaff (late 40's- early 50's: base
pairing= AT CG)
• Alfred Hershey-Martha Chase (1952: DNA
is not a protein)
• Watson and Crick (1953: chemical structure
COMPOSITION OF NUCLEIC ACIDS
of DNA)
• Meselson-Stahl (mid 1950's: DNA
Nucleic Acids
Replication details)
- polymers
- polynucleotides

Parts of Nucleotide
- five-membered ring monosaccharide
- nitrogen-containing cyclic compound
- phosphate group

Types of Nucleic Acids

- DNA
- RNA

Sugars
• DNA - 2-deoxyribose (2-deoxy means that an
Virulent = Pathogenic oxygen atom is missing from the C2 position of
ribose)
Friedrich Miescher in 1869 • RNA – Ribose
- isolated what he called nuclein from the
nuclei of pus cells
- Nuclein was shown to have acidic properties,
hence it became called nucleic acid (coined
by his student)
Bases
• Purine (2)
- contains two-fused nitrogen-containing ring B-N-
- end in -osine
- Adenine
- Guanine

• Pyrimidine (3)
- has one nitrogen-containing ring
- end in -dine glycosidic acid - the
- Cytosine bond
- Thymine connecting the sugar
- Uracil and the base

Nucleoside
+
Phosphate
= Nucleotide

Nucleotides
- are the building blocks of nucleic acids
- Monomers of the DNA and RNA polymers
- each nucleotide is a 5'-monophosphate ester
of a nucleoside

Sugar + Base = Nucleoside

- sugar and the base are connected by a bond
between one of the nitrogen atoms in a ring
and the sugar's 1st carbon atom

- named by adding 5'-monophosphate at the

end of the name of the nucleoside
- can add additional phosphate groups to form
diphosphate or triphosphate esters
STRUCTURE OF DNA & RNA

PRIMARY  Double Helix

STRUCTURE - the 2 polynucleotide chains run in opposite
- alternating directions
deoxyribose - one 5' -OH and one 3' -OH terminal
and - bases are hydrophobic
phosphate - sugar-phosphate backbone is exposed to
group the aqueous environment
- backbone of the
molecule Phosphate
group is linked to the
3' carbon of one
deoxyribose unit and
simultaneously to the
5' carbon of the next
deoxyribose unit

SECONDARY STRUCTURE
 Chargaff's Rule
 James Watson and Francis Crick - for each A on one chain, a T is aligned
- based on the following: Chargaff Rule opposite it on the other chain
that (A&T) and (G&C) are present in - G-C
equimolar quantities. - the bases so paired form H bonds with each
- X-ray diffraction photographs by other, 2 for A-T and 3 for G-C
Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins (complimentary base pairs)
HIGHER STRUCTURE
- DNA in the nuclei in not stretched out, but
rather coiled around basic protein molecules
called histones
- the acidic DNA and the basic histones attract
each other by electrostatic (ionic) forces,
combining to form units called
nucleosomes
- in a nucleosome, 8 histones form a core,
around which a 147-base pair DNA double
helix is wound
 transfer RNA (tRNA)
- matches code for amino acid on mRNA
and positions the right amino acid in
place during protein synthesis
- containing from 73 to 93 nucleotides per
chain
- there is at least one different tRNA for
each of the 20 amino acids
- transports amino acids to the site of
protein synthesis in the ribosomes

 ribozyme
- chemicals used to remove/splice introns
Types of RNA in the mRNA
- catalytic RNA
 messenger RNA (mRNA) - catalyze the splicing of mRNA
- codes for proteins
- carry the genetic information from the
DNA in the nucleus directly to the
cytoplasm
- consists of a chain of nucleotides whose
sequence is exactly complementary to
one of the strands of DNA

 ribosomal RNA (rRNA)

- forms the core of the ribosomes,
machinery for making proteins
- RNA in complexed with proteins in
ribosomes
- complex machinery that controls protein
synthesis
- 2 subunits
1 large: catalyzes the peptide bond
formation
1 small: binds mRNA and tRNA
 Expression of Genes
Exons  Some genes are transcribed in large quantities
- coding sequences because we need large amount of this protein
- "expressed sequences"  Some genes are transcribed in small
quantities because we need only a small
Introns amount of this protein
- noncoding sequences
- "intervening sequences" Genes as Information Transfer

CENTRAL DOGMA OF LIFE

- from DNA to Protein

DNA to PROTEIN
- DNA acts as a "manager" in the process of
making proteins
- DNA is the template or starting sequence  A gene is the sequence of nucleotides within
that is copied into RNA that is then used to a portion of DNA that codes for a peptide or a
make the protein functional RNA
 Sum of all genes= GENOME

CENTRAL DOGMA OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

 Information contained in DNA molecules is

 One gene - one protein
 This is the same for bacteria to
humans
 DNA is the genetic instruction or gene
 DNA --> RNA is called Transcription
- RNA chain is called a transcript
 RNA --> Protein is called Translation
transferred to RNA molecules, and then from
the RNA molecules the information is
expressed in the structure of proteins
2 steps in transmission of information:
- Transcription
- Translation
 Transcription
- occurs in the nucleus
- information encoded in a DNA molecule
is copied into an mRNA molecule

 Translation
- information encoded in an mRNA
molecule is used to assemble a specific
protein