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Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid containing the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. The chemical DNA was discovered in 1869, but its role in genetic inheritance was not demonstrated until 1943. The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes.
It is not always the case that the structure of a molecule is easy to relate to its function. What makes the structure of DNA so obviously related to its function was described modestly at the end of the article: "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material".
Nucleic acid design can be used to create nucleic acid complexes with complicated secondary structures such as this four-arm junction. These four strands associate into this structure because it maximizes the number of correct base pairs, with As matched to Ts and Cs matched to Gs. Image from Mao, 2004. [5]
A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases within the nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. This succession is denoted by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of the nucleotides. By convention, sequences are usually presented from the 5' end to the 3' end.
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 axis every 10 bp of sequence. [3] The double helix makes one complete turn about its axis every 10.4–10.5 base pairs in solution.
Nucleic acid methods are the techniques used to study nucleic acids: DNA and RNA. Purification. DNA extraction; Phenol–chloroform extraction; Minicolumn purification;
Nucleic acid NMR is the use of NMR spectroscopy to obtain information about the structure and dynamics of nucleic acid molecules, such as DNA or RNA. As of 2003, nearly half of all known RNA structures had been determined by NMR spectroscopy. [2] Nucleic acid NMR uses similar techniques as protein NMR, but has several differences.
Contamination by phenol, which is commonly used in nucleic acid purification, can significantly throw off quantification estimates. Phenol absorbs with a peak at 270 nm and a A 260/280 of 1.2. Nucleic acid preparations uncontaminated by phenol should have a A 260/280 of around 2. [2]