Nucleic Acids and their functions
- Created by: zoolouise
- Created on: 16-03-16 19:47
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Nucleic Acids and their functions
Nucleotide structure
- Nucleic acids - polymers of nucleotides (DNA, RNA, ATP)
- Nucleotides - made up of a pentose ugar, nitrogenous base and a phosphate group
- Polynucleotides - many nucleotides together (they can be millions of nucleotides long)
There are three components in a nucleotide and they are combined by a condensation reaction which involves two molecules joining to form a large molecule and a small molecule - usually water.
1) A phosphate group - the phosphate group is the same structure in all nucleotides.
2) A pentose sugar - it's ribose in RNA, deoxyribose in DNA (lacking one oxygen)
3) An organic base - it's often referred to as a nitrogenous base.
There are two types of organic bases ( a big base can only bond to a small base and vise versa):
- Pyrimide bases - thymine (T), cytosine (C) and uracil (U)
- Purine bases - adenine (A) and guanine (G)
Chemical energy and biological processes
In biological sytems:
- Chemical energy is used in biological processes, bonds must make or…
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