Week 8 - Nucleic Acid
Week 8 - Nucleic Acid
Week 8 - Nucleic Acid
Week-8
MIDTERM
CHEM113 1ST
NUCLEIC ACID
PENTOSE SUGAR
• Ribose is present in RNA and 2-deoxyribose is
present in DNA
• Structural difference:
– a —OH group present on carbon 2’ in
ribose
– a —H atom in 2-deoxyribose
• RNA and DNA differ in the identity of the sugar unit in
their nucleotides.
PHOSPHATE
BASE PAIRING
• One small and one large base can fit inside the DNA
strands: RIBONUCLEIC ACID
o Hydrogen bonding is stronger with A-T and
G-C Differences Between RNA and DNA Molecules
o A-T and G-C are called complementary • The sugar unit in the backbone of RNA is ribose; it is
bases deoxyribose in DNA.
• The base thymine found in DNA is replaced by uracil
in RNA
BIOCHEM
Week-8
MIDTERM
CHEM113 1ST
• RNA is a single-stranded molecule; DNA is double- • RNA polymerase catalyzes the linkage of
stranded (double helix) ribonucleotides one by one to form mRNA molecule
• RNA molecules are much smaller than DNA molecules, • Transcription ends when the RNA polymerase enzyme
ranging from 75 nucleotides to a few thousand encounters a stop signal on the DNA template:
nucleotides – The newly formed RNA molecule and the
RNA polymerase enzyme are released
TYPES OF RNA MOLECULE
• Heterogeneous nuclear RNA (hnRNA): Formed directly POST-TRANSCRIPTION PROCESSING: Formation of mRNA
by DNA transcription. • Involves conversion of hnRNA to mRNA
o Post-transcription processing converts the • Splicing: Excision of introns and joining of exons
hnRNA to mRNA – Exon - a gene segment that codes for
• Messenger RNA: Carries instructions for protein genetic information
synthesis (genetic information) from DNA – Intron – a DNA segments that interrupt a
o The molecular mass of mRNA varies with genetic message
the length of the protein – The splicing process is driven by snRNA
• Small nuclear RNA: Facilitates the conversion of • Alternative splicing - A process by which several
hnRNA to mRNA. different protein variants are produced from a single
o Contains from 100 to 200 nucleotides gene
• Ribosomal RNA (rRNA): Combines with specific – The process involves excision of one or
proteins to form ribosomes - the physical site for more exons
protein synthesis. Ribosomes have molecular masses
on the order of 3 million TRANSCRIPTOME
• Transfer RNA (tRNA): Delivers amino acids to the sites • Transcriptome: All of the mRNA molecules that can be
for protein synthesis generated from the genetic material in a genome.
o tRNAs are the smallest (75–90 nucleotide – Transcriptome is different from a genome
units) – Responsible for the biochemical complexity
created by splice variants obtained by
hnRNA.