nucleic acid monomer are called:
nucleotides
what are the functions of nucleic acids?
storage and transmission of genetic material; guiding gene expression
what are the three main components of a nucleotide?
nitrogenous base, pentose sugar, phosphate group
what is the role of the nitrogenous base in a nucleotide?
carrying genetic code
what is the role of the phosphate group in a nucleotide?
connects nucleotides in a chain
what are the two nitrogenous base families?
pyrimidines and purines
pyrimidines
cytosine, thymine and uracil
purines
adenine and guanine
what is the complementary strand of the following strand: 5’ TCAGGACTTA3’
3’AGTCCTGAAT5’
nucleic acids are formed via ____
polymerization of nucleotides
define a phosphodiester bond
covalent bonds between the 5’ phosphate of one nucleotide and the 3’ hydroxyl of the next
describe a sugar phosphate backbone
the repeating structural framework of nucleic acids
the primary structure of nucleic acids includes:
a single-stranded sequence of bases
the secondary structure of nucleic acids includes:
the double helix with two strands running antiparallel
what type of bonds hold together nitrogenous bases?
hydrogen
adenine pairs with…
thymine
guanine pairs with…
cytosine
the sugar phosphate backbone faces the ____ in the double helix
exterior
the nitrogenous bases face the ____ in the double helix
interior
describe the tertiary structure of nucleic acids
DNA can supercoil around histones
describe the process of DNA replication
parent strands break by separating hydrogen bonds - free nucleotides pair with each - new strands are built via phosphodiester linkages - two identical daughter molecules are formed
nucleotide sequences are always written from the ____
5’ end to the 3’ end
If a DNA double helix contains 28% T nucleotides, what is the percentage of A nucleotides?
28%
if a DNA double helix is 100 nucleotide pairs long and contains 25 adenine bases, how many guanine bases does it contain?
75
