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The phosphate groups have a negative charge each, making RNA a charged molecule (polyanion). The bases form hydrogen bonds between cytosine and guanine, between adenine and uracil and between guanine and uracil. [ 2 ]
At neutral pH, nucleic acids are highly charged as each phosphate group carries a negative charge. [7] Both DNA and RNA are built from nucleoside phosphates, also known as mononucleotide monomers, which are thermodynamically less likely to combine than amino acids. Phosphodiester bonds, when hydrolyzed, release a considerable amount of free energy.
Strings of nucleotides are bonded to form spiraling backbones and assembled into chains of bases or base-pairs selected from the five primary, or canonical, nucleobases. RNA usually forms a chain of single bases, whereas DNA forms a chain of base pairs. The bases found in RNA and DNA are: adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, and uracil. Thymine ...
Cytosine, thymine, and uracil are pyrimidines, hence the glycosidic bonds form between their 1 nitrogen and the 1' -OH of the deoxyribose. For both the purine and pyrimidine bases, the phosphate group forms a bond with the deoxyribose sugar through an ester bond between one of its negatively charged oxygen groups and the 5' -OH of the sugar. [2]
Trivalent ions such as cobalt hexamine or lanthanide ions such as terbium (Tb 3+) are useful experimental tools for studying metal binding to RNA. [51] [52] A metal ion can interact with RNA in multiple ways. An ion can associate diffusely with the RNA backbone, shielding otherwise unfavorable electrostatic interactions. This charge screening ...
This is due to the greater degree of intrinsic disorder and dynamism in nucleic acid structures and the negatively charged (deoxy)ribose-phosphate backbones, which repel each other in close proximity. Therefore, crystallized nucleic acids tend to be complexed with a protein of interest to provide structural order and neutralize the negative charge.
DNA and RNA also contain other (non-primary) bases that have been modified after the nucleic acid chain has been formed. In DNA, the most common modified base is 5-methylcytosine (m 5 C). In RNA, there are many modified bases, including those contained in the nucleosides pseudouridine (Ψ), dihydrouridine (D), inosine (I), and 7-methylguanosine ...
Gel electrophoresis of nucleic acids is an analytical technique to separate DNA or RNA fragments by size and reactivity. Nucleic acid molecules are placed on a gel, where an electric field induces the nucleic acids (which are negatively charged due to their sugar-phosphate backbone) to migrate toward the positively charged anode. The molecules ...