P

NUCLEIC
ACID

Structure and
Functions

Friedrich Miescher in
1869
isolated

what he called

nuclein
Nuclein was shown to
have acidic properties,
hence it became called
nucleic acid

Nucleic Acid
are

molecules
that
store
information for cellular growth
and reproduction
DNA and RNA
polynucleotides
Nucleotides
nitrogenous base, a pentose
sugar and a phosphate group

Nucleotide

Nucleotide

Nitrogenous Base
consist

of

two

general

types:
purines:
adenine (A)
and guanine (G)
pyrimidines:
cytosine
(C), thymine (T) and
Uracil (U)

Nitrogenous Base
Purines

Nitrogenous Base
Pyrimidines

Purines and Pyrimidine

Phosphate Group

Pentose Sugars
There are two related
pentose sugars:
- RNA contains ribose
- DNA contains
deoxyribose

Pentose Sugar
DEOXYRIBOSE

RIBOSE
CH2OH

C
H

OH

CH2OH

OH

OH

OH

OH

Nucleosides

Nucleoside

Nucleoside

Nucleoside

Nucleoside Phosphates

Nucleoside Phosphates

Nucleoside Phosphates

Nomenclature

Polymeris
e
Nucleotid
es

Polymer Nucleotide
nucleotides can be
linked
phosphates

linked to 2

pentoses
phosphodiester linkages
Link
5

PO4 at

end to 3 OH of next
nucleotide

Polymer Nucleotide

P
G
P
C

Polymer
Nucleotide

C
P
A
P
T
P
T

Base
pairing

Base Pairing
Base

pairs" arise from hydrogen

bonds
Erwin Chargaff had the pairing
data
Rosalind Franklin's X-ray fiber
diffraction data was crucial
Francis Crick knew it was a helix
James Watson figured out the Hbonds

Chargaffs
Rule

Hydrogen bonds
P
G

C
P

P
C

G
P

P
C

G
P

P
A

P
P
P
T

Chargaffs Rule
A

DNA segment is consists of 240

nucleotides. Eighty are adenine.
What is the % of each nucleotide?
A DNA segment has 45 guanine
and 50 thymine. The total number
of nucleotides present in the
segment is ?
In DNA guanine is 45%. The
content of adenine is?

Base Pairing
phosphate

sugar
phosphate

phosphate
sugar

base

base
sugar

base

sugar

base

phosphate

nucleoside

nucleotides

sugar

nucleic acids

base

Nucleic
ACID
DNA
RNA

Wilkins & Franklin (1952): X-ray

crystallography

DNA Structure

Double Helix

DNA vs. RNA

Double stranded
Single Stranded

SugarDeoxyribose
Sugar ribose

Nitrogen Bases
Adenine
Thymine
Guanine
Guanine
Cytosine
Cytosine

Nitrogen Bases
Adenine
Uracil