Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 ribose zipper is an RNA tertiary structural element in which two RNA chains are held together by hydrogen bonding interactions involving the 2’OH of ribose sugars on different strands. The 2'OH can behave as both hydrogen bond donor and acceptor, which allows formation of bifurcated hydrogen bonds with another 2’ OH. [46] [47]
The sequence of nucleobases on a nucleic acid strand is translated by cell machinery into a sequence of amino acids making up a protein strand. Each group of three bases, called a codon , corresponds to a single amino acid, and there is a specific genetic code by which each possible combination of three bases corresponds to a specific amino acid.
The chemical structure of DNA base-pairs . A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA and RNA.
In the A-U Hoogsteen base pair, the adenine is rotated 180° about the glycosidic bond, resulting in an alternative hydrogen bonding scheme which has one hydrogen bond in common with the Watson-Crick base pair (adenine N6 and thymine N4), while the other hydrogen bond, instead of occurring between adenine N1 and thymine N3 as in the Watson ...
At the sides of nucleic acid structure, phosphate molecules successively connect the two sugar-rings of two adjacent nucleotide monomers, thereby creating a long chain biomolecule. These chain-joins of phosphates with sugars ( ribose or deoxyribose ) create the "backbone" strands for a single- or double helix biomolecule.
In nucleic acid, nucleobases are held together by hydrogen bonding, which only works efficiently between adenine and thymine and between guanine and cytosine. The base complement A = T shares two hydrogen bonds, while the base pair G ≡ C has three hydrogen bonds. All other configurations between nucleobases would hinder double helix formation.
At the time, "yeast nucleic acid" (RNA) was thought to occur only in plants, while "thymus nucleic acid" (DNA) only in animals. The latter was thought to be a tetramer, with the function of buffering cellular pH. [199] [200] In 1937, William Astbury produced the first X-ray diffraction patterns that showed that DNA had a regular structure. [201]