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Biology AS Edexcel Snab Revision

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  1. lifestyle-health-and-risk as
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Exam code:8BN0

DNA: Structure

  • The nucleic acid DNA is a polynucleotide – it is made up of many nucleotides bonded together in a long chain

DNA nucleotide with carbon numbers

DNA nucleotide

  • DNA molecules are made up of two polynucleotide strands lying side by side, running in opposite directions – the strands are said to be antiparallel

  • Each DNA polynucleotide strand is made up of alternating deoxyribose sugars and phosphate groups bonded together to form the sugar-phosphate backbone. These bonds are covalent bonds known as phosphodiester bonds

    • The phosphodiester bonds link the 5-carbon of one deoxyribose sugar molecule to the phosphate group from the same nucleotide, which is itself linked by another phosphodiester bond to the 3-carbon of the deoxyribose sugar molecule of the next nucleotide in the strand

    • Each DNA polynucleotide strand is said to have a 3’ end and a 5’ end (these numbers relate to which carbon on the pentose sugar could be bonded with another nucleotide)

    • As the strands run in opposite directions (they are antiparallel), one is known as the 5’ to 3’ strand and the other is known as the 3’ to 5’ strand

  • The nitrogenous bases of each nucleotide project out from the backbone towards the interior of the double-stranded DNA molecule

A single DNA polynucleotide strand

A single DNA polynucleotide strand

Hydrogen bonding

  • The two antiparallel DNA polynucleotide strands that make up the DNA molecule are held together by hydrogen bonds between the nitrogenous bases

  • These hydrogen bonds always occur between the same pairs of bases:

    • The purine adenine (A) always pairs with the pyrimidine thymine (T) – two hydrogen bonds are formed between these bases

    • The purine guanine (G) always pairs with the pyrimidine cytosine (C) – three hydrogen bonds are formed between these bases

    • This is known as complementary base pairing

    • These pairs are known as DNA base pairs

DNA molecule with hydrogen bonding

A section of DNA showing hydrogen bonding between base pairs

Double helix

  • DNA is not two-dimensional as seen in the diagram above

  • DNA is described as a double helix

  • This refers to the three-dimensional shape that DNA molecules form

DNA double helix formation

DNA molecules form a 3D double helix structure

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Make sure you can name the different components of a DNA molecule (sugar-phosphate backbone, nucleotide, complementary base pairs, phosphodiester bonds, hydrogen bonds) and make sure you are able to locate these on a diagram.

Remember that phosphodiester bonds join the nucleotides in the sugar-phosphate backbone, and hydrogen bonds join the bases of the two complementary strands together.

Remember that the bases are complementary, so the number of A = T and C = G. You could be asked to determine how many bases are present in a DNA molecule if given the number of just one of the bases.

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