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Nucleic acid structure refers to the structure of nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA. Chemically speaking, DNA and RNA are very similar. Chemically speaking, DNA and RNA are very similar. Nucleic acid structure is often divided into four different levels: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary.
The collection of DNA molecules of various truncated lengths therefore informs the frequency of reaction at every base position, which reflects the structure profile along the RNA. This is traditionally assayed by running the DNA on a gel , and the intensity of bands inform the frequency of observing a truncation at each position.
The double helix is the dominant tertiary structure for biological DNA, and is also a possible structure for RNA. Three DNA conformations are believed to be found in nature, A-DNA, B-DNA, and Z-DNA. The "B" form described by James D. Watson and Francis Crick is believed to predominate in cells. [2]
In 1951, Pauling published the structure of the alpha helix, a fundamentally important structural component of proteins. In early 1953, Pauling published a triple helix model of DNA, which subsequently turned out to be incorrect. [3] Both Crick, and particularly Watson, thought that they were racing against Pauling to discover the structure of DNA.
Nucleic acids consist of a chain of linked units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of three subunits: a phosphate group and a sugar (ribose in the case of RNA, deoxyribose in DNA) make up the backbone of the nucleic acid strand, and attached to the sugar is one of a set of nucleobases.
The DNA model shown (far right) is a space-filling, or CPK, model of the DNA double helix. Animated molecular models, such as the wire, or skeletal, type shown at the top of this article, allow one to visually explore the three-dimensional (3D) structure of DNA. Another type of DNA model is the space-filling, or CPK, model.
The primary structure of a biopolymer is the exact specification of its atomic composition and the chemical bonds connecting those atoms (including stereochemistry).For a typical unbranched, un-crosslinked biopolymer (such as a molecule of a typical intracellular protein, or of DNA or RNA), the primary structure is equivalent to specifying the sequence of its monomeric subunits, such as amino ...
DNA is defined by containing 2'-deoxy-ribose nucleic acid while RNA is defined by containing ribose nucleic acid. [1] In some occasions, DNA and RNA may contain some minor bases. Methylated forms of the major bases are most common in DNA. In viral DNA, some bases may be hydroxymethylated or glucosylated.