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Although DNA and RNA do not generally occur in the same polynucleotide, the four species of nucleotides may occur in any order in the chain. The sequence of DNA or RNA species for a given polynucleotide is the main factor determining its function in a living organism or a scientific experiment. [citation needed]
The sequence of the DNA of a living thing encodes the necessary information for that living thing to survive and reproduce. Therefore, determining the sequence is useful in fundamental research into why and how organisms live, as well as in applied subjects. Because of the importance of DNA to living things, knowledge of a DNA sequence may be ...
In DNA replication, DNA-dependent DNA polymerases make copies of DNA polynucleotide chains. To preserve biological information, it is essential that the sequence of bases in each copy are precisely complementary to the sequence of bases in the template strand.
The tertiary arrangement of DNA's double helix in space includes B-DNA, A-DNA, and Z-DNA. Triple-stranded DNA structures have been demonstrated in repetitive polypurine:polypyrimidine Microsatellite sequences and Satellite DNA. B-DNA is the most common form of DNA in vivo and is a more narrow, elongated helix than A-DNA. Its wide major groove ...
The term nucleic acid is the overall name for DNA and RNA, members of a family of biopolymers, [13] and is a type of polynucleotide. Nucleic acids were named for their initial discovery within the nucleus , and for the presence of phosphate groups (related to phosphoric acid). [ 14 ]
Annealing, in genetics, means for complementary sequences of single-stranded DNA or RNA to pair by hydrogen bonds to form a double-stranded polynucleotide. Before annealing can occur, one of the strands may need to be phosphorylated by an enzyme such as kinase to allow proper hydrogen bonding to occur.
This nucleotide contains the five-carbon sugar deoxyribose (at center), a nucleobase called adenine (upper right), and one phosphate group (left). The deoxyribose sugar joined only to the nitrogenous base forms a Deoxyribonucleoside called deoxyadenosine, whereas the whole structure along with the phosphate group is a nucleotide, a constituent of DNA with the name deoxyadenosine monophosphate.
These creative approaches to visualizing DNA sequences have generally relied on the use of spatially distributed symbols and/or visually distinct shapes to encode lengthy nucleic acid sequences. Alternative notations for nucleotide sequences have been attempted, however general uptake has been low. Several of these approaches are summarized below.