Understanding DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid

Rosalind Franklin & Maurice Wilkins

James Watson & Francis Crick

Erwin Chargaff AT CG

very large linear molecules examples: DNA and RNA contain C, H, N, O, P sugar phosphate nitrogen base nucleotide store genetic information, help to make proteins made up of nucleotides containing a sugar, phosphate and a N-base

Nucleotides A. Sugar (deoxyribose) B. Phosphate Group C. Nitrogen Bases A B C

Rules for Base Pairing: B. Adenine = Thymine (A = T) A. Cytosine Guanine (C G) the lines between the letters are hydrogen bonds

* stores genetic information What is the function of DNA ?

C G A A T G Sugar Phosphate Nitrogen Bases

Fun Facts If you wrote down all of the bases in one cell, you would fill a stack of 1,000 phone books with A's, T's, G's and C's

Fun Facts If you unraveled all your chromosomes from all of your cells and laid out the DNA end to end, the strands would stretch from the Earth to the Moon about 6,000 times.

Understanding RNA Ribonucleic Acid

Nucleotides A. Sugar (ribose) B. Phosphate Group C. Nitrogen Bases A B C

Rules for Base Pairing: B. Adenine = Uracil (A = U) A. Cytosine Guanine (C G) Notice that RNA has Uracil (not thymine)

* helps to make protein Types of RNA A. Messenger (mRNA) B. Transfer (tRNA) C. Ribosomal (rRNA) What is the function of RNA?

Phosphate Group Nitrogen Base Sugar (ribose)

Comparing DNA & RNA DNARNA Sugar is deoxyribose Sugar is ribose Adenine base is present Cytosine base is present √ √ √√ √√

Comparing DNA & RNA DNARNA Guanine base is present Thymine base is present Uracil base is present Shape is double helix √ √ √ √ √

Comparing DNA & RNA DNARNA Shape is single stranded Located in nucleus Located in cytoplasm Stores genetic information √ √ √ √ √

Comparing DNA & RNA DNARNA Functions in protein synthesis Composed of nucleotides Template for synthesis of proteins Transcribes the Template √√ √√ √ √

Comparing DNA & RNA DNARNA More than one type √