nucleic acid
biopolymer made of monomer units called nucleotides
what are nucleotides?
difference between dna and rna?
no U (uracil) in DNA, no T (thymine) in RNA
nucleotides are linked by what?
phosophodiester bond between phosphate group at C-5’ and the OH on the C-3’
T pairs to
A
G pairs to
C
how many h bonds between t and a?
2
how many h bonds between g and c?
3
double helix
two antiparallel strands are coiled in a right handed manner; structure is based on xray crystallography
histone
a protein particularly rich in basic AAs (lys and arg) found in eukaryotic dna
what is chromatin?
dna molecules wound around particles of histones in a beadlike structure
structure of chromatin
each bead is a nucleosome
each nucleosome consists of
DNA wrapped around histone core
RNA
pentose unit is ribose
- single stranded (can have double stranded regions)
- pyrimidine base uracil instead of thymine
prokaryotic replication (summarized)
separation of 2 original strands and synthesis of 2 new daughter strands using originals as templates
why is replication labelled as semiconservative?
b/c each daughter dna contains one template strand and one new one
dna replication steps
in dna replication of euks, there are several…
origins of replication and two replication forks at each origin
dna polymerase functions have the following requirements:
dTTP, dATP, dGTP, dCTP (deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates)
- Mg2+ (cofactor)
- RNA primer
dna polymerase iii is responsible for
polymerization
dna polymerase i is responsible for
the removal of primer and replacing it with DNA
dna is synthesized in a
5’ to 3’ direction
leading strand is synthesized
continuously in a 5’ to 3’ direction
lagging strand is synthesized
discontinuously (okazaki fragments) in a 5’ to 3’ direction, AWAY from the replication fork