NUCLEOTIDES AND NUCLEIC ACID

– Part 3
CHEMISTRY OF NUCLEIC ACIDS
• Can be disrupted
o Denaturation
➢Heat
➢Low salt concentrations
➢pH extremes
• Mutations
o Permanent changes in base sequence of DNA molecules
o Classes of xenobiotics
➢Base analogues – similar to bases
❖Incorporated into DNA
❖E.g: caffeine analogous to adenine, pair to guanine
❖Transition mutation
➢Alkylating agents
❖Electrophilic substances attack molecules that possess an
unshared pair of electrons
❖Add carbon-containing alkyl groups – alkylation
❖Adenine and guanine – more susceptible
❖Transition mutation
➢Nonalkylating agents
❖Modify DNA structure
❖E.g: HNO2
▪ Derived – nitrosamines and NaNO2
▪ Deaminates bases
❑ Adenine – hypoxanthine
❑ Guanine – xanthine
❑ Cytosine – uracil
▪ Reactive derivatives – adducts of most bases
▪ Prevents base pairing
❖E.g: aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbons
➢Intercalating agents
❖Planar molecules – insert between stacked base pairs
▪ Adjacent baise pairs – deleted or inserted
▪ Frame-shift mutations
CENTRAL DOGMA
 DNA replication
• semi-conservative
 Transcription
• DNA to RNA
• Steps:
o A section of DNA containing the gene unwinds
o One strand of DNA is copied starting at the initiation point,
which has the sequence TATAAA
➢RNA polymerase moves along the DNA template in the 3’-
5’direction to synthesize the corresponding mRNA
➢The mRNA is released at the termination point
o mRNA is synthesized using complementary base pairing
with uracil (U) replacing thymine (T)
o Gene – reading frame
➢Introns – non- coding units
➢Exons – coding units
o Produced RNA
➢Pre-mRNA
➢Splicing – remove introns
✓ Functioning mRNA
✓ Carries genetic code
✓ mRNA leaves nucleus
 Translation
• RNA to protein
• Steps:
1. Activation of tRNA
2. Initiation and translocation
3. Elongation
4. Termination
• Activation of tRNA
Translocation
• Genetic code
o Sequence of nucleotides in mRNA that is transcribed from
the DNA
o Read in triplet of bases – codon
o Each of the 20 amino acids needed to build a protein has
at least 2 codons
o 1 start codon
➢AUG (Met)
o 3 stop codons
➢UAA
➢UAG
➢UGA
 Reading the Genetic Code - exercise
• Suppose we want to determine the amino acids coded for
in the following section of a mRNA

5’—CCUAGCGGACUU—3’

• According to the genetic code, the amino acids for these

codons are:
➢ CCU Proline
➢ AGC Serine
➢ GGA Glycine
➢ CUU Leucine

• The mRNA section codes for the amino acid sequence

of
+NH –Pro—Ser—Gly—Leu–COO-
3