MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

LEARNING GOALS

• Students will learn about nucleotides, the monomer

of DNA molecules, and how they are bound to form
strands

• Students will understand how complementary base

pairing can lead to the formation of two
polynucleotide strands that twist to form a double
helix
 WHAT IS DNA?

• Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

• DNA is the hereditary material – passed on from

generation to generation

• Contains information that controls the production of

proteins
 STRUCTURE OF DNA

• Structure: DNA is made up of repeating units of

nucleotides (monomer)

• Nucleotides are composed of the following 3

components:
1. A sugar group
2. A phosphate group
3. A nitrogenous base
 1. SUGAR GROUP

In DNA, the sugar group is a deoxyribose sugar

The sugar group is a five-carbon molecule
 2. PHOSPHATE GROUP

The deoxyribose sugar binds with phosphate at both

its 3’ and 5’ (three prime and five prime) carbons
 3. NITROGENOUS BASE

• A nitrogenous base attaches to the deoxyribose

sugar group
• There are two different forms of nitrogenous bases:

1. Pyrimidines
2. Purines
 3. NITROGENOUS BASE

Thymine and Cytosine

are pyrimidines

Adenine and Guanine

are purines
PYRIMIDINES – CHEMICAL STRUCTURE

Thymine and Cytosine

Have a single ring

PURINES – CHEMICAL STRUCTURE

Adenine and Guanine

Have two fused rings

 DNA NUCLEOTIDE*

Recall: consists of a phosphate group, sugar group

and nitrogenous base
DRAW A NUCLEOTIDE
 NUCLEOSIDE VS. NUCLEOTIDE

• A sugar + a nitrogenous base = nucleoside

• A sugar + a nitrogen base + phosphate = nucleotide

• Phosphorylating a nucleoside makes a nucleotides

 BINDING OF TWO STRANDS
• Complementary base pairing: nitrogenous bases on opposite
strands pair through hydrogen bond formation such that

Adenine pairs with Thymine

Cytosine pairs with Guanine

• A-T held by 2 hydrogen bonds

• C-G held by 3 hydrogen bonds

Question: Which pair do you think is stronger?

 QUESTIONS!

• How many bonds between A-T? C-G?

• What kind of bonds are these?

• What is a nucleotide and what is a nitrogenous

base?
 SHAPE OF CHROMOSOMES
A B
• A. Metacentric
chromosomes

• B. Submetacentric
chromosomes
D
• C. Acrocentric
chromosomes
C

• D. Telocentric
chromosomes.
 THE THREE MODELS FOR DNA
REPLICATION
• Semi-conservative replication. In this model, the two
strands of DNA unwind from each other, and each acts as
a template for synthesis of a new, complementary strand.
This results in two DNA molecules with one original strand
and one new strand.
• Conservative replication. In this model, DNA replication
results in one molecule that consists of both original DNA
strands (identical to the original DNA molecule) and
another molecule that consists of two new strands (with
exactly the same sequences as the original molecule).
• Dispersive replication. In the dispersive model, DNA
replication results in two DNA molecules that are mixtures,
or “hybrids,” of parental and daughter DNA. In this model,
each individual strand is a patchwork of original and new
DNA.
TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION