11/5/2023 0 Comments Mrna sugar phosphate backbone![]() Strong intermolecular forces called hydrogen bonds between the bases on adjacent strands are responsible for this because of the structures of the different bases, adenine (A) always forms hydrogen bonds with thymine (T), whilst guanine (G) always forms hydrogen bonds with cytosine (C). In human DNA, on average there are 150 million base pairs in a single molecule – so many more than shown here! The bases are what allow the two strands of DNA to hold together. The sugar and phosphate groups combined form the repeating ‘backbone’ of the DNA strands. There are four different bases that can potentially be attached to the sugar group: adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine, given the designations A, T, G and C. ![]() These strands are made up of nucleotides, which themselves consist of three component parts: a sugar group, a phosphate group, and a base. The double helix model of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) consists of two intertwined strands. However, her failure to win a Nobel prize is not an oversight, but merely a consequence of the committee’s policy that Nobel prizes cannot be awarded posthumously. She had yet to publish her findings when Watson and Crick obtained access to them, without her knowledge. This work, however, was heavily reliant on the work of another scientist, Rosalind Franklin.įranklin herself was also investigating the structure of DNA, and it was her X-ray photograph, clearly showing the double helix structure of DNA, that greatly aided their work. The authors of the paper in which this structure was suggested, James Watson & Francis Crick, are now household names and won a Nobel prize for their work. However, its structure was not elucidated until almost a century later, in 1953. This graphic provides an overview of its common structure across these life forms and a brief explanation of how it allows proteins to be generated.ĭNA is found in the nucleus of cells in multicellular organisms and was first isolated in 1869, by the Swiss physician Friedrich Miescher. Of course, it’s not just in humans that DNA is found – it’s present in the cells of every multicellular life form on Earth. Today’s post crosses over into the realm of biochemistry, with a look at the chemical structure of DNA, and its role in creating proteins in our cells.
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