DNA - Gene
Central Dogma
DNA ---------→ RNA---------→Protein.
• This unidirectional flow equation represents the
Central Dogma (fundamental law) of molecular
biology.
• This is the mechanism whereby inherited information
is used to create actual objects, namely enzymes and
structural proteins.
Cell division
• What is DNA and gene?
• A gene is the basic physical and functional unit of heredity.
• Genes are made up of DNA. Some genes act as instructions to make
molecules called proteins.
• However, many genes do not code for proteins.
• humans, genes vary in size from a few hundred DNA bases to more
than 2 million bases.
• DNA discovery
• DNA was first observed by a German biochemist named Frederich
Miescher in 1869.
• But for many years, researchers did not realize the importance of this
molecule.
• It was l 1953 that James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and
Rosalind Franklin figured out the structure of DNA — a double helix
— which they realized could carry biological information.
DNA structure and function
• DNA is the information molecule.
• It stores instructions for making other large
molecules, called proteins.
• These instructions are stored inside each of your cells,
distributed among 46 long structures called
chromosomes.
• These chromosomes are made up of thousands of
shorter segments of DNA, called genes.
• the shape of DNA
• double helix
• The DNA molecule consists of
two strands that wind around
one another to form a shape
known as a double helix.
• Each strand has a backbone
made of alternating sugar
(deoxyribose) and phosphate
groups.
• Why is DNA structure important?
• DNA's unique structure enables the
molecule to copy itself during cell
division.
• When a cell prepares to divide,
the DNA helix splits down the
middle and becomes two single
strands.
• These single strands serve as
templates for building two new,
double-stranded DNA molecules -
each a replica of the
original DNA molecule.
• How is DNA divided into genes?
• It can help to visualise the bases as letters in the
alphabet that form words when they are in a certain
order.
• These 'words' are called genes and act like a set of
instructions for our cells.
• To fit into cells, the DNA double helix is wrapped up
around histone proteins and then coiled up further
into chromosomes
• How much DNA is in the human body?
• The set of chromosomes in a cell makes up its genome; the human
genome has approximately 3 billion base pairs of DNA arranged into
46 chromosomes.
• The information carried by DNA is held in the sequence of pieces of
DNA called genes.
Nucleic acids
• Principle information molecule in the cell.
• All the genetic codes are carried out on the
nucleic acids.
• Nucleic acid is a linear polymer of nucleotides
Types of Nucleic acids
There are 2 types of nucleic acids:
1. Deoxy-ribonucleic acid (DNA)
• Pentose Sugar is deoxyribose (no OH at 2’ position)
• Bases are Purines (A, G) and Pyrimidine (C, T).
2. Ribonucleic acid (RNA)
• Pentose Sugar is Ribose.
• Bases are Purines (A, G) and Pyrimidines (C, U).
/ DNA
Nucleotides
• Nucleotides are the unit structure of nucleic acids.
• Nucleotides composed of 3 components:
• Nitrogenous base (A, C, G, T or U)
• Pentose sugar
• Phosphate
Nitrogenous bases
• There are 2 types:
• Purines:
• Two ring structure
• Adenine (A) and Guanine (G)
• Pyrimidines:
• Single ring structure
• Cytosine (C) and Thymine (T) or Uracil (U).
Nucleotide bases
Types of Nucleic acids
There are 2 types of nucleic acids:
1. Deoxy-ribonucleic acid (DNA)
• Pentose Sugar is deoxyribose (no OH at 2’ position)
• Bases are Purines (A, G) and Pyrimidine (C, T).
2. Ribonucleic acid (RNA)
• Pentose Sugar is Ribose.
• Bases are Purines (A, G) and Pyrimidines (C, U).
Linear Polymerization of Nucleotides
• Nucleic acids are
formed of nucleotide
polymers.
• Nucleotides polymerize
together by phospho-
diester bonds via
condensation reaction.
• The phospho-diester
bond is formed
between:
• Hydroxyl (OH) group
of the sugar of one
nucleotide.
• Phosphate group of
other nucleotide
Polymerization of Nucleotides
• The formed polynucleotide
chain is formed of:
• Negative (-ve) charged
Sugar-Phosphate backbone.
• Free 5’ phosphate on one
end (5’ end)
• Free 3’ hydroxyl on other
end (3’ end)
• Nitrogenous bases are not in
the backbone
• Attached to the backbone
• Free to pair with
nitrogenous bases of other
polynucleotide chain
Polymerization of Nucleotides
• Nucleic acids are polymers of nucleotides.
• The nucleotides formed of purine or
pyrimidine bases linked to phosphorylated
sugars (nucleotide back bone).
• The bases are linked to the pentose sugar to
form Nucleoside.
• The nucleotides contain one phosphate group
linked to the 5’ carbon of the nucleoside.
Nucleotide = Nucleoside + Phosphate group
N.B.
• The polymerization of nucleotides to form nucleic
acids occur by condensation reaction by making
phospho-diester bond between 5’ phosphate
group of one nucleotide and 3’ hydroxyl group of
another nucleotide.
• Polynucleotide chains are always synthesized in
the 5’ to 3’ direction, with a free nucleotide being
added to the 3’ OH group of a growing chain.
Complementary base pairing
• It is the most important structural feature of nucleic acids
• It connects bases of one polynucleotide chain (nucleotide
polymer) with complementary bases of other chain
• Complementary bases are bonded together via:
• Double hydrogen bond between A and T (DNA), A and U (RNA)
(A═T or A═U)
• Triple H-bond between G and C in both DNA or RNA (G≡C)
Base pairing
• Chargaff's rules state that DNA from any species of any organism
should have a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio of purine and pyrimidine bases
and, more specifically, that the amount of guanine should be equal to
cytosine and the amount of adenine should be equal to thymine. This
pattern is found in both strands of the DNA
DNA VS RNA
Formation of primary
structure