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2.6 Structure of DNA & RNA

Nucleic acids like DNA and RNA are made up of nucleotides, which consist of a sugar, phosphate group, and nitrogenous base. DNA has a double helix structure with two antiparallel strands linked by hydrogen bonds between complementary nucleotide base pairs, while RNA is single-stranded. The key differences between DNA and RNA are that DNA contains the sugar deoxyribose, has the base thymine, and exists as a double strand, while RNA contains the sugar ribose, has the base uracil, and is single-stranded.

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125 views3 pages

2.6 Structure of DNA & RNA

Nucleic acids like DNA and RNA are made up of nucleotides, which consist of a sugar, phosphate group, and nitrogenous base. DNA has a double helix structure with two antiparallel strands linked by hydrogen bonds between complementary nucleotide base pairs, while RNA is single-stranded. The key differences between DNA and RNA are that DNA contains the sugar deoxyribose, has the base thymine, and exists as a double strand, while RNA contains the sugar ribose, has the base uracil, and is single-stranded.

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Structure of DNA & RNA

Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids

Nucleic acids are very large molecules constructed by linking together nucleotides to form
a polymer.

Three kinds: ATP, DNA and RNA.

Nucleotides consist of:

A pentose sugar (can be ribose or deoxyribose)


A phosphate group (acidic and negatively charged part)
A base (contains nitrogen and has either one or two rings of atoms in its structure)

Phosphate and base are linked to the sugar by covalent bonds. The link between two
nucleotides is called a phosphodiester bond (the link between the phosphate group of one
nucleotide and the sugar of another).

Makes a strong backbone for the molecule.

Four different bases in DNA and RNA each, so there are four different nucleotides. Can be
arranged in any order-- the way they store information.

This is adenosine triphosphate. It has phosphate groups, a ribose sugar and a nitrogenous
base
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Differences

Number of Strands: DNA has two strands (two polymers) while RNA has one strand (one
polymer).

Base Composition: DNA has adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine while RNA has
adenine, uracil, guanine and cytosine. Purines have double-rings (adenine and guanine) and
pyrimidines have single rings (thymine, uracil and cytosine).

The Sugar: DNA has deoxyribose sugars, which has one less oxygen on the hydroxyl
molecule in the 2’ prime position, unlike RNA, which has ribose sugars.

Structure of DNA

Double helix
two antiparallel (run in two different directions, one is oriented in the 5’ to 3’ direction and
the other is vice versa) strands
nucleotides linked by hydrogen bonds
complementary base pairs.

Written with StackEdit.


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