INTEGRONS

 Mobile genetic elements, forming essential building block of many transposons & allow the
rapid formation & expression of new combination of genes.

PATHOGENECITY ISLANDS

 Groups of virulence - associated genes that code for unique insertion systems, toxins, adhesins
& regulatory CHONs & contain integrase & transposable genes

 Found in prokaryotic genomes

NUCLEIC ACID

 Originally isolated from the cell nucleus so they are nucleic acid. Contain blueprint of life called
genes. Dna is a blueprints molecule for all cellular organisms and for viruses the blueprint is
either dna or rna. Ex. in hepatitis virus there are different types like hepa a,b,c,d. All hepatitis
virus are rna except for hepatitis b which is DNA.

 A very long molecule composed of small subunits celled nucleotides

 Nucleotide- basic unit of DNA structure, composed of phosphate, deoxyribose sugar, and a
nitrogenous base.

 Building block of dna

a. Nitrogenous base - compound that comes in 2 forms

1. Purines - adenine, guanine

2. Pyrimidines - thymine, cytosine, uracil

 DNA contains all the nitrogenous base except uracil

 RNA contains all the nitrogenous bases except thymine

       b)  sugar - DNA - deoxyribose

  RNA - ribose 

       c) phosphate - provides the final covalent bridge that connects sugars in series, thus, the backbone
of a nucleic acid strand is a chain of alternating phosphate-sugar-phosphate-sugar molecule, and the
nitrogenous bases branch off the side of the backbone

 Nitrogenous base is where your genetic code is.

DNA 
  A huge molecule formed by 2 very long polynucleotide strands linked by hydrogen bonds bet.
Complimentary pairs of nitrogenous bases (adenine pairs w/ thymine, cytosine pairs w/ guanine)

 a double helix (spiral staircase), orientation of strands is antiparallel

 one strand oriented in a 5’-3’ direction, its complementary strand in 3’-5’ direction

 base pairs are stacked within the center of DNA double helix

 significance of DNA structure-arrangement of nitrogenous bases in DNA has the following

effects:

1. Maintenance of the code during reproduction

 Constancy of base pairing guarantees that the ode will be retained during cell growth and
division.

2. Providing variety

 The order of bases along the length of the DNA strand constitutes the genetic program of the
DNA code

 Genome is the collection of all the DNA bases that, in an ordered combination is responsible for
the unique qualities of each organism

-will help you identify certain organism 

RNA (Ribonucleic Acid)

 Consists of a long chain of nucleotides

 A single strand containing ribose sugar instead of deoxyribose and uracil instead of thymine

 All types of RNS are formed thru transcription of a DNA gene, but only mRNA is further
translated

TYPES OF RNA:

1. Messenger RNA (mRNA)

 Carries the DNA master code to the ribosome

 Transcribed and translated

 The message of transcribes strand is read as a series of triplets called codons

-the only type of RNA that is translated

 2. Transfer RNA (tRNA)

 Cloverleaf structure

 Not translated

 Converts RNA language into CHON language

 Bottom of the cloverleaf exposes a triplet (anticodon) that designates the specificity of the tRNA
and complements mRNA’s codons

3. Ribosomal RNA (rRNA)

 Forms the major part of a ribosome and participates in CHON synthesis

 Not translated

 Contains codes for several large structural rRNA molecules

NOTE: 

 the tRNA and rRNA are associated with the universally required function of protein synthesis
and they tend to be stable and together account for more than 95% of the total RNA in a
bacterial cell

 protein synthesis is done by the ribosomes