One of the important specialized pathways of a number of amino acids is the synthesis of purine and pyrimidine nucleotides.

These nucleotides are important for a number of reasons. Most of them, not just ATP, are the sources of energy that drive most of our reactions.

There are two kinds of nitrogen-containing bases: Purines consist of a six-membered and a five-membered nitrogencontaining ring, fused together. Pyridmidines have only a six-membered nitrogen-containing ring. There are 4 purines and 4 pyrimidines that are of concern to us.

Adenine = 6-amino purine Guanine = 2-amino-6-oxy purine Hypoxanthine = 6-oxy purine Xanthine = 2,6-dioxy purine

Adenine and guanine are found in both DNA and RNA. Hypoxanthine and xanthine are not incorporated into the nucleic acids as they are being synthesized but are important intermediates in the synthesis and degradation of the purine nucleotides.

Uracil = 2,4-dioxy pyrimidine Thymine = 2,4-dioxy-5-methyl pyrimidine Cytosine = 2-oxy-4-amino pyrimidine Orotic acid = 2,4-dioxy-6-carboxy pyrimidine

Cytosine is found in both DNA and RNA. Uracil is found only in RNA. Thymine is normally found in DNA. Sometimes tRNA will contain some thymine as well as uracil.

If a sugar, either ribose or 2-deoxyribose, is added to a nitrogen base, the resulting compound is called a nucleoside. Carbon 1 of the sugar is attached to nitrogen 9 of a purine base or to nitrogen 1 of a pyrimidine base. The names of purine nucleosides end in -osine and the names of pyrimidine nucleosides end in -idine.

Adenosine Guanosine Inosine - the base in inosine is hypoxanthine Uridine Thymidine Cytidine

Adding one or more phosphates to the sugar portion of a nucleoside results in a nucleotide. Generally, the phosphate is in ester linkage to carbon 5' of the sugar. If more than one phosphate is present, they are generally in acid anhydride linkages to each other.

AMP = adenosine monophosphate = adenylic acid CDP = cytidinediphosphate dGTP = deoxyguanosine triphosphate dTTP = deoxy thymidine triphosphate (more commonly designated TTP) cAMP = 3'-5' cyclic adenosine monophosphate

Nucleotides are joined together by 3'-5' phosphodiester bonds to form polynucleotides. Polymerization of ribonucleotides will produce an RNA while polymerization of deoxyribonucleotides leads to DNA.

DNA STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

Deoxyribonucleic acid
Is a chemical basis of hereditary and is organized into genes. It is the fundamental unit of genetic information. Contains genetic information.

Four deoxynucleotides:
A (adenine) G (guanine) T (thymine) C (cytosine)

The denaturation of DNA is USED to analyse its structure

Double-stranded structure of DNA can be separated in two component strands. Concomitant with this denaturation of the DNA molecules is an increase in the optical absorbance of the purine and pyrimidine bases.

Renaturation of DNA requires Base Pair Matching

Separated strands of DNA will renature or reassociate, when appropriate physiologic temperature and salt conditions are achieved.

Knowledge of the structures and function of nucleic acid is essential in understanding genetics and many aspects of Pathophysiology as well as genetic basis of diseases.

RNA STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) a universal family of large biological molecules that performs multiple vital roles in the coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes.

RNA comprises the nucleic acids, which, along with proteins, constitute the three major macromolecules essential for all known forms of life.

RNA INVOLVED IN SOME ASPECT OF PROTEIN SYNTHESIS

Cytoplasmic RNA molecules that serves as templates for protein synthesis that transfers genetic information from DNA to proteinsynthesizing machinary are designated messenger RNAs, or mRNAs.

 It contains ribonucleotides of adenine, guanine, cytosine and uracil Guanine is pairing with Cytosine Adenine is pairing with Uracil Protein synthesis, a universal function whereby mRNA molecules direct the assembly of proteins on ribosomes. This process uses transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules to deliver amino acids to the ribosome, where ribosomal RNA (rRNA) links amino acids together to form proteins. Small nuclear

ribonucleic acid (snRNA) is a class of small RNA molecules that are found within the nucleus of eukaryotic cells.

The major forms of RNA include messenger RNA(mRNA), ribosomal RNA (rRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs; miRNAs). Certain RNA molecules act as catalyts (ribozymes)

RNA
Contains the sugar ribose RNA has the nucleobase uracil single-stranded

DNA
contains the slightly different sugar deoxyribose contains thymine

Double-stranded

 Adenine and guanine are purines, cytosine, and uracil are pyrimidines. A phosphate group is attached to the 3' position of one ribose and the 5' position of the next.

An important structural feature of RNA that distinguishes it from DNA is the presence of a hydroxyl group at the 2' position of the ribose sugar. The presence of this functional group causes the helix to adopt the A-form geometry rather than the B-form most commonly observed in DNA. it can chemically attack the adjacent phosphodiester bond to cleave the backbone.

This results in a very deep and narrow major groove and a shallow and wide minor groove. A second consequence of the presence of the 2'-hydroxyl group is that in conformationally flexible regions of an RNA molecule it can chemically attack the adjacent phosphodiester bond to cleave the backbone.