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The image above contains clickable links Interactive image of nucleic acid structure (primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary) using DNA helices and examples from the VS ribozyme and telomerase and nucleosome. Nucleic acid structure refers to the structure of nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA. Chemically speaking, DNA and RNA are very similar.
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 ] James D. Watson and Francis Crick described this structure as a double helix with a radius of 10 Å and pitch of 34 Å , making one complete turn about its ...
The nucleobases are important in base pairing of strands to form higher-level secondary and tertiary structures such as the famed double helix. The possible letters are A, C, G, and T, representing the four nucleotide bases of a DNA strand – adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine – covalently linked to a phosphodiester backbone.
In a non-biological context, secondary structure is a vital consideration in the nucleic acid design of nucleic acid structures for DNA nanotechnology and DNA computing, since the pattern of basepairing ultimately determines the overall structure of the molecules.
The complex and diverse secondary and tertiary structure of aptamers, as shown in this schematic of an aptamer's secondary structure, is what lets them bind their target strongly and specifically. Complementary base pairing is visible in the black lines connecting some G-C and A-T bases. This is a feature of nucleic acids that does not exist in ...
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 can be twisted like a rope in a process called DNA supercoiling. With DNA in its "relaxed" state, a strand usually circles the axis of the double helix once every 10.4 base pairs, but if the DNA is twisted the strands become more tightly or more loosely wound. [43]
Similarly other biomolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids have four levels of structural arrangement: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structure. Primary structure is the linear sequence of nucleotides, secondary structure involves small local folding motifs, and tertiary structure is the 3D folded shape of nucleic acid molecule.