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DNA Structure and Gene Function

DNA stores the genetic instructions that allow cells to produce proteins. It was not until the 1950s that scientists confirmed DNA as the genetic material. Erwin Chargaff showed that DNA bases are present in specific ratios, while Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin used X-ray crystallography to show DNA's repeating structure. James Watson and Francis Crick then combined this information to build a double-helix model of DNA, with two strands coiled around each other. Their model showed how DNA bases on each strand pair up through hydrogen bonds to form the ladder-like structure. DNA carries genetic information from parents to offspring and allows for protein production through messenger RNA, transfer RNA and ribosomal RNA during translation.

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Jiro Sarmiento
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10 views

DNA Structure and Gene Function

DNA stores the genetic instructions that allow cells to produce proteins. It was not until the 1950s that scientists confirmed DNA as the genetic material. Erwin Chargaff showed that DNA bases are present in specific ratios, while Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin used X-ray crystallography to show DNA's repeating structure. James Watson and Francis Crick then combined this information to build a double-helix model of DNA, with two strands coiled around each other. Their model showed how DNA bases on each strand pair up through hydrogen bonds to form the ladder-like structure. DNA carries genetic information from parents to offspring and allows for protein production through messenger RNA, transfer RNA and ribosomal RNA during translation.

Uploaded by

Jiro Sarmiento
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DNA Structure and

Gene Function
 Life depends on DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), a molecule
with a remarkable function: It stores the information that
each cell needs to produce proteins.
 Because proteins have so many critical functions, the
instructions in DNA make it possible.
 Given DNA’s central role in life, it is amazing to consider
that biologists only confirmed that
DNA is the genetic material in the
1950s.
 First, biochemist Erwin Chargaff had
shown that the amount of guanine in a
DNA molecule always equals the amount
of cytosine, and the adenine always equal
the amount of thymine.
 He found that each species had unique
percentages of each type of nucleotide.
The human cell had 31% of its bases as
adenine, 31% as thymine, 19% as guanine,
and 19% as cytosine.
 Second, English physicist Maurice
Wilkins and chemist Rosalind
Franklin used a technique called X-
ray diffraction to determine the
three-dimensional shape of the
molecule. The technique shows
pattern of a regularly repeating
structure of building blocks.
 James Watson and
Francis Crick combined
those clues to build a
ball-and-stick model of
DNA molecule. The
model shows two
strands that make up a
DNA molecule that are
wound around each
other, forming a double
spiral molecule
resembling a twisted
ladder.
 The double helix resembles a twisted ladder. The twin rails of
the ladder, also called the sugar-phosphate “backbones”, are
alternating units of deoxyribose and phosphate joined with
covalent bonds.
 The ladder rungs are A-T and C-G base pairs joined by
hydrogen bonds. The two strands of a DNA molecule are
complementary to each other, that is, the sequence of each
strand determines the sequence of the other.
 In reality, the amount of DNA in any
cell is immense; in humans, for
example, each nucleus contains
some 6.4 billions base pairs. An
organism’s genome is all of the
genetic materials in its cells.
 In eukaryotic cell, the majority of
the genome is divided among
multiple chromosomes housed inside
the cell’s nucleus; each
chromosomes is a discrete package
of DNA coiled around proteins.
DNA Stores Genetic Information:
An Overview
 Watson and Crick describe the relationship between nucleic
acids and proteins as a flow of information they called the
“central dogma”.
Parts/Components DNA RNA
Bases Adenine(A), Thymine (T), Cytosine(C), Adenine(A), Uracil(U), Cytosine(C),
Guanine(G) Guanine(G)

Strand Double Single


Location Found inside the nucleus Mostly found in the cytoplasm
Sugar deoxyribose ribose
Function Transfer genetic information form one Direct synthesis of proteins in the
generation to the next body
 Three types of RNA interact
to synthesize proteins.
Messenger RNA (mRNA)
carries the information
that specifies a protein.
The mRNA is divided into
genetic “code words”
called codons; a codon is a
group of three consecutive
mRNA bases that
corresponds to one amino
acid.
 Transfer RNA (tRNA)
molecules are “connectors”
that bind an mRNA codon at
one end and a specific amino
acid at the other. Their role
is to carry each amino acid to
the correct spot along the
mRNA molecule.
 Ribosomal RNA (rRNA)
combines with proteins to
form a ribosome, the physical
location where translation
occur.

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