The Structure of DNA
DNA – An Overview
• DNA is often called the blueprint of
life – it stores an organism’s genetic
information.
• DNA contains the instructions for
making proteins within the cell.
• The heritable genetic information of
an organism is stored in DNA
Why do we study DNA?
We study DNA for many reasons:
• Its central importance to all life on
Earth
• Medical benefits such as cures for
diseases
• Commercial food crops
• Cloning of endangered or extinct
species (maybe)
DNA by the Numbers
• DNA has a diameter of only 0.000000002 m.
• Each cell has about 2 meters of DNA
• The average human has 75 trillion cells, which means that…
The average human has enough DNA to go from the earth to
the sun more than 400 times!! (The Earth is 150 billion
meters or 93 million miles from the sun.)
…pretend that
happened 400 times…
The Shape of the Molecule
• The basic shape is like a twisted ladder or
zipper.
• This is called a double helix.
– In the early 50’s Rosalind Franklin and Maurice
Wilkins produced images of DNA using X-ray
crystallography.
– In 1953, Watson and Crick, based on the findings
of Franklin, published the double-helical structure
of DNA, consisting of two strands of nucleotides
winding around one another, with the
nitrogenous bases (A, T, C, G) on the inside.
Nucleic Acids
• Nucleic acids store information in their
sequences.
• Polymers composed of long chains of
monomers called nucleotides that are
linked by dehydration synthesis.
• There are two types of nucleic acids:
1. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
• Double helix
• The “blueprint of life”
• Stores all heritable genetic information
Nucleic Acids
2. Ribonucleic acid (RNA)
• Single stranded
• Stores genetic information in some organisms;
transfers information in other organisms
(humans)
• Three types:
o mRNA (Messenger RNA)
o tRNA (Transfer RNA)
o rRNA (Ribosomal RNA)
Nucleotides
• Nucleotides have THREE parts:
1. Phosphate group (P)
2. Pentose sugar (ring-shaped, 5-carbon sugar)
– “penta” = 5
– Either deoxyribose (DNA) or ribose (RNA)
3. Nitrogenous bases (made of C, H, N):
Adenine (A)
Thymine (T) – in DNA only
Cytosine (C)
Guanine (G)
Uracil (U) – in RNA only
Pause & Draw: Nucleotide
Nitrogenous Base
Phosphate (A, G, C, or T
Group in DNA)
O 5
O=P-O CH2
O
O
N
C4 C1
Sugar
(deoxyribose
or ribose)
C3 C2
Think Pair Share: Is this DNA or RNA? How do you
know?
Purines and Pyrimidines
• The nitrogenous bases on a nucleotide can be either
pyrimidines or purines
• Pyrimidines are single-ringed bases.
– Thymine (T) and Cytosine (C) are pyrimidines
• They each have one ring
of carbon and nitrogen atoms.
13
Purines and Pyrimadines
• Purines are large, double-ringed bases.
– Adenine (A) and Guanine (G) are purines
• They each have two rings
of carbon and nitrogen atoms
All Girls are Pure
DNA – Double Helix
5 O 3
3 O
P 5 P
5 O
1 G C 3
2
4 4
2 1
3 5
O
P P
5
T A 3
O
5
P 3 P 15
Strand of DNA
• One strand of DNA is a polymer of nucleotides.
• The nucleotides are connected to each other by
covalent bonds that join the sugar of one
nucleotide to the phosphate group of the next
nucleotide.
• The attachment happens at the 3’ end
carbon of one sugar and the 5’ end of
another (this is just the direction of the
DNA strand).
One Strand of DNA
• The backbone of the DNA molecule is made phosphate
of alternating phosphate groups and
deoxyribose sugars.
• The “rungs of the DNA ladder” are the deoxyribose
nitrogenous bases (either A, C, T, or G).
• A always pairs with T and G always pairs with
C. This is known as complimentary base bases
pairing.
Think Pair Share: Complementary Base Pairing Practice
• So if a strand of DNA has the following base pairs:
Apples in a Tree
ACTCGG Cars in a Garage
TGAGC C
• What is its complementary strand?
Hydrogen Bonds
N
• How do both strands of DNA stick
together? Hydrogen bonds!
C
Hydrogen Bonds
N
• The bases attract each other because
C
of HYDROGEN bonds.
C
C
O
N
• Hydrogen bonds are weak, but there
C
N
are millions and millions of them in a
C N
single molecule of DNA.
C C O
• The bonds between cytosine and
guanine are shown here with dotted C N
lines
Hydrogen Bonds
• When making
O
hydrogen bonds, N C
cytosine always
pairs with _______.
Guanine O C C C
• Adenine always N C
pairs with
___________.
Thymine
Adenine is bonded to thymine
here
Chargaff’s Rule
• There should always be a 1:1 ratio
of purines : pyrimidines
– # purines = # pyrimidines
THINK PAIR SHARE:
A DNA molecule with 10 base pairs
contains 6 thymines.
• How many adenines are there?
• How many cytosines are there?
Chargaff’s Rule
ATCTGCAAGT
TAGACGTTCA
4C=4G
6A=6T
