CH 6
CH 6
CH 6
1. Nitrogenous base
2. Pentose sugar
3. Phosphate group
The nitrogenous bases present in DNA are adenine, cytosine, thymine and guanine. In RNA,
thymine is replaced by uracil.
Polynucleotide chain is formed when more than two nucleotides are linked together
through 3’ – 5’ phosphodiester linkages.
Double-helix DNA structure was proposed by James Watson and Francis Crick.
Adenine always pairs with thymine, with two hydrogen bonds while guanine pairs with
cytosine, with three hydrogen bonds.
Avery, MacLeod and McCarty concluded that DNA, and not the protein, is the genetic mat
erial that leads to bacterial transformation.
Harshey and Chase conducted experiment on bacteriophage and confirmed that DNA is th
e genetic material in these viruses.
Presence of 2’ OH group on RNA makes it easily degradable; hence, less stable. Therefore, D
NA is structurally more stable than RNA, and hence, is used as genetic material.
DNA Replication
The enzyme required for the replication is DNA-dependent DNA polymerase. It catalyses
polymerisation only in the 5’ 3’ direction.
The process of DNA replication is discontinuous on the template strand with polarity 5’ 3’
The generated discontinuous fragments are later on joined by DNA ligase to form a
continuous DNA strand.
RNA
There are three types of RNA –
Transcription is the process of transferring genetic information from DNA to RNA. Only on
e DNA strand is copied into mRNA.
A transcription unit extends from the promoter to the terminator region.
Transcription of the DNA template strand produces an RNA transcript with the same seque
nce as a non-template strand (coding strand).
Process of transcription
Genetic code
o Triplet
o Universal
o Degenerate
o Non-ambiguous
o Commaless
o Initiation codon is AUG (Methionine) and termination codons are UAA, UGA and UAG.
Mutation
It is the sudden change in genotype due to the alteration in DNA sequences.
Point mutation arises due to the change in a single base pair in DNA; for example, sickle-
cell anaemia.
Frame shift mutation arises due to deletion and insertion of base pairs.
Translation
Lac Operon
DNA fingerprinting
It is the technique to find variations in an individual at DNA level. It is based on the principl
e of DNA polymorphism.
Polymorphism: It is the variation at DNA level due to mutation. These variations accumula
te and give rise to new species.
o Forensic science
o Genetic biodiversity
o Evolutionary biology