GENETICS
SCI109
Chemical
Basis of
Heredity
MODULE 3
1 2 3 4
Describe the Differentiate the Explain the transfer Discuss how
chromosome in terms structure of DNA and of information from nucleotide sequence
of its chemical RNA DNA to protein in the DNA or RNA are
composition interpreted using the
coding system
At the end of this module, the
students should be able to:
CHEMICAL
COMPOSITION OF
THE
CHROMOSOME
Chromosome Composition
Chromosomes are primarily composed of
DNA and proteins, with small amounts of
RNA. Their chemical composition includes:
1. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) (~40%)
2. Proteins (~60%)
A. Histone proteins- help package and
organize DNA into chromatin. They
form complexes called nucleosomes.
Each nucleosome is composed of DNA
wound around 8 histone proteins. They
fold-up to form 30nm chromatin fiber,
which then forms looped domains. These
loops are further tightly coiled into the
chromatid of a chromosome
B. Non-histone proteins- assist in gene
regulation, replication, and repair.
3. RNA- found, in small amounts, in
actively transcribed regions of
chromosomes.
DNA STRUCTURE
AND
COMPOSITION
Structure of DNA
DNA is a chain of nucleotides. Each
nucleotide is a complex of three
subunits:
-- phosphate group
-- pentose sugar (deoxyribose)
-- nitrogenous base
There are four possible bases. Two
are purines with a double ring and
two are pyrimidines with a single
ring. Adenine (A) and guanine (G)
are purines; thymine (T) and
cytosine (C) are pyrimidines. A
purine is always bonded to
pyrimidine. This is called
complementary base pairing.
Adenine always pairs
with thymine by
forming two
hydrogen bonds.
A DNA polynucleotide
strand has a backbone
of alternating sugar
molecules and
phosphate molecules.
The bases are
attached to the sugar.
Guanine always pairs
with cytosine by
forming three
hydrogen bonds.
DNA has two such strands, and
the two strands twist about one
another in the form of a double
helix.
When the double helix
unwinds, it resembles a
ladder. The sides of the
ladder are the
phosphate-sugar
backbones, and the
rungs of the ladder are
the complementary
paired bases.
The two DNA strands are
antiparallel– that is,
they run in opposite
directions, which you
can verify by noticing
that the sugar
molecules are oriented
differently. The carbon
atoms in a sugar
molecule are numbered,
and the 5th carbon atom
(5’) is uppermost in the
strand on the left, while
the third carbon atom
(3’) is uppermost in the
strand on the right.
REPLICATION
OF DNA
What is DNA Replication?
DNA Replication refers to the
process of copying one DNA
double helix into two
identical double helices
where each strand serves as a
template for the formation of
a complementary new strand.
It is semiconservative
because a new helix has one
conserved old strand and one
new strand.
Replication results into two
DNA helices that are identical
to each other and to the
original molecule.
The Process of DNA Replication
1. Helicase enzymes bind to the origin of replication and start to unwind the
double stranded DNA. This establishes two replication forks, or spots where
the DNA is unwound, and replication takes place. The unwinding exposes single
strands of DNA. Topoisomerase can be seen working to relieve tension ahead of
the replication fork.
2. The primase enzymes primes the template strands with RNA primers for copying.
The primers are made of RNA nucleotides, and these nucleotides assist the next
enzyme (DNA polymerase) in attaching to the template DNA strands at various
locations to read them.
3. The double strands of template DNA are antiparallel and ‘run’ in opposite
directions, but the DNA polymerase can only work in one direction. DNA polymerase
always synthesizes (builds) new DNA in the 5' to 3' direction because it reads the
template strand from 3' to 5'. This means there will be continuous (leading) and
discontinuous (lagging) replication happening at each replication fork
Leading strand- the strand that
can be replicated on a continuous
basis.
Lagging strand- The strand that
cannot be replicated on a
continuous basis.
Leading strand formation- For the right fork, the leading strand is found at the top strand because DNA
polymerase can continually read in the 3’ to 5’ direction as it synthesizes new DNA in the 5' to 3' direction .
Lagging strand formation- the bottom strand needs to be copied, but DNA polymerase cannot read in the 5’ to
3’ direction. It is possible for DNA polymerase to make a copy of this strand using it’s 3’ to 5’ reading direction
but only in short segments because of the direction in which the DNA is opening. Thus, more primers are
required to form multiple for DNA polymerase to read the strand. The result of this process is short DNA
segments intermixed with RNA primers. These short fragments of newly synthesized DNA, each starting with an
RNA primer, are called Okazaki fragments.
4. Once DNA polymerase has replicated the DNA, a third enzyme called ligase
completes the final stage of DNA replication, which is repairing the sugar-phosphate
backbone. This connects the gaps in the backbone between Okazaki fragments. Once
this is complete, the DNA coils back into its classic double helix structure. The
replication process concludes with the formation of two identical DNA molecules,
each containing one original strand and one newly synthesized strand.
RNA STRUCTURE
AND
COMPOSITION
Structure of RNA
RNA (ribonucleic acid) is made up
of nucleotides containing the sugar
ribose. In RNA, the base uracil
replaces the base thymine.
RNA, unlike DNA, is single
stranded, but the single strand
sometimes doubles back on itself,
allowing complementary base
pairing to occur.
DNA RNA
Sugar Deoxyribose Ribose
Bases A, G, T, C A, G, U, C
Double Single
Strands
Stranded Stranded
Helix Yes No
Three Major Types of RNA
Messenger RNA Transfer RNA Ribosomal RNA
(mRNA) (tRNA) (rRNA)
Is produced in the Is also produced in the Is produced in the
nucleus, or in the nucleus. It transfers nucleolus of eukaryotic
nucleoid of amino acids to the cell’s nucleus. rRNA joins
prokaryotes. It ribosomes, where the with proteins made in the
carries genetic amino acids are joined to cytoplasm to form the
information from form a protein. Each type subunits of ribosomes.
DNA to ribosomes in of tRNA carries only one
the cytoplasm. type of amino acid.