INTRODUCTION TO MOLECULAR

GENETICS – Part 1

A lecture prepared by

DR. LEONISA O. BERNARDO

⚫Nitrogenous bases are heterocyclic amines
◦ They are cyclic compounds with at least
one nitrogen atom in the ring structure.
◦ Two types of nitrogenous bases:
1. Purines – adenine (A) and guanine (G)
2. Pyrimidines – thymine (T), cytosine
(C), uracil (U)
 NITROGENOUS BASES
⚫Planar, aromatic and heterocyclic
NUCLEOSIDES
⚫Result from linking one of the sugars
with a purine or pyrimidine base
through an N-glycosidic linkage.

◦ Purines bond to the C1’ carbon of the

sugar at their N9 atoms
◦ Pyrimidines bond to the C1’ carbon of
the sugar at the N1 atoms
STRUCTURE AND NAMING OF NUCLEOSIDE
Example:
Deoxyribose attached to Adenine
NUCLEOTIDE
❑ Every nucleotide is composed of
▪ a NUCLEOSIDE
o nitrogenous base linked to a
o a five-carbon sugar (ribose or deoxyribose),
and

▪ at least one PHOSPHORYL GROUP

Example of Nucleotide

Deoxyadenosine

NUCLEOSIDE
Deoxyadenosine Phosphate
STRUCTURE AND NAMING OF NUCLEOTIDE
Example: Deoxyadenosine (Deoxyribose + Adenine)
with one phosphoryl group
PURINE NUCLEOTIDES
PURINE NUCLEOTIDES
PYRIMIDINE NUCLEOTIDE
PYRIMIDINE NUCLEOTIDE
PYRIMIDINE NUCLEOTIDE
 Summary of Nucleoside Names
- Purines end in “-sine”; Pyrimidines end in “-dine”
SUGAR + NITROGENOUS = NUCLEOSIDE
BASE NAME
DNA
Deoxyribose Adenine Deoxyadenosine
Deoxyribose Guanine Deoxyguanosine
Deoxyribose Thymine Deoxythymidine
Deoxyribose Cytosine Deoxycytidine
RNA
Ribose Adenine Adenosine
Ribose Guanine Guanosine
Ribose Cytosine Cytidine
Ribose Uracil Uridine
 Summary of Nucleotide Names
NUCLEOSIDE NUCLEOTIDE

Deoxyadenosine Deoxyadenosine monophosphate (dAMP),

Deoxyguanosine Deoxyguanosine diphosphate (dGDP)
Deoxythymidine Deoxythymidine triphosphate (dTTP)
Deoxycytidine Deoxycytidine monophosphate (dCMP)

Adenosine Adenosine triphosphate (ATP)

Guanosine Guanosine diphosphate (GDP)
Cytidine Cytidine monosphosphate (CMP)
Uridine Uridine triphosphate (UTP)
TYQ-7.1
(a) Draw the structures for nucleotides consisting of
the following units.
(b) Name the nucleotide

1. Ribose, cytosine, two phosphoryl groups

2. 2’-Deoxyribose, thymine, one phosphoryl group
3. Ribose, uracil, one phosphoryl group
4. 2’-Deoxyribose, guanine, three phosphoryl
groups
Nucleotides have a number of roles.
▪ They are the monomers for nucleic acid
polymers.
▪ Nucleoside triphosphates, like ATP and
GTP, are energy carriers in metabolic
pathways.
▪ Nucleotides are also components of
some important coenzymes, like FAD,
NAD+ and Coenzyme A.
THE DNA STRUCTURE
⚫ A single strand of DNA is a
polymer of nucleotides bonded to
one another by 3’-5’
phosphodiester bonds.
⚫ The backbone of the polymer is
called the sugar-phosphate
backbone because it is composed
of alternating units of the five-
carbon sugar 2’Deoxy ribose and
phosphoryl groups in
phosphodiester linkage.
⚫ A nitrogenuous base is bonded to
each sugar by an N-glycosidic
linkage.
 THE DNA DOUBLE HELIX
❑ James Watson & Francis Crick were the first
to describe the three-dimensional structure of DNA
in 1953.
❑Irwin Chargaff
observed that the
amount of adenine in
any DNA molecule is
equal to the amount
of thymine.
❑Similarly, the amounts
of cytosine and guanine
are equal.
⚫Hence, Watson and Crick concluded that DNA
is a double helix of two strands of DNA wound
around one another
 ❑ The double helix is maintained by hydrogen
bonding between the nitrogenous bases in the
center of the helix.

How many H-bonds

exist between
thymine and
adenine?
How many H-bonds
exist between
cytosine and
guanine?
These are called base pairs.
The two strands of
DNA are
complementary
strands because the
sequence of bases
on one
automatically
determine the
sequence of bases
on the other
CHROMOSOMES
- are pieces of DNA that carry the genetic
instructions, or genes, of an organism.
- Prokaryotes have only a single chromosome.
Ex. bacteria
- Eukaryotes have many chromosomes.
Ex. Animals, plants, and fungi.
❖Nucleosomes is the
first level of structure
in eukaryotic
chromosomes.

❖It consists of a
strand of DNA
wrapped around a
small disk make up of
histone proteins.

Video 1 (DNA to protein)

 DNA REPLICATION
⚫DNA must be replicated before a cell
divides so that each daughter cell inherits a
copy of each gene.
◦ A cell that is missing a critical gene will die, just
as an individual with a genetic disease, a defect in
an important gene may die early in life.
◦ Thus, it is essential that the process of DNA
replication produces an absolutely accurate copy
of the original genetic information.
◦ If mistakes are made in critical genes, the result
may be lethal mutations.
⚫Video Presentation
https://youtu.be/TNKWgcFPHqw

Before watching the video, look at TYQ-2

in the next slide. Answer them while
watching the video. You may pause the
video while answering them.
TYQ-7.2

1. Enumerate the different enzymes involved in

the DNA replication. State the function of
each.
2. Define the following terms:
a. Replication fork
b. RNA primer
c. Leading strand
d. Lagging strand
e. Okasaki fragments
3. Why is DNA replication semi-conservative?
⚫Let us now proceed to the 2nd
part of molecular genetics . . .
Information Flow in Biological
Systems