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kayla1234 kayla1234
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13 years ago
identify the structure and function of DNA and RNA and their role in protein synthesis
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13 years ago
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a polymer of four different nucleotides. Each nucleotide is composed of three parts:

Rightwards Arrow a nitrogen base
 
Rightwards Arrow a five-carbon sugar called deoxyribose
 
Rightwards Arrow a phosphate group (Phosphoric Acid)

These nucleotides differ because they have different bases, which could be any of these:

(A) Adenine - a double-ring base (purine)
 
(T) Thymine - a single-ring base (pyrimidine)
 
(C) Cytosine - a single-ring base (pyrimidine)
 
(G) Guanine - a double-ring base (purine)

RNA is quite the same, but instead of deoxyribose as its sugar, it's ribose. And, instead of thymine, it has (U) uracil, which is also a single-ring base (pyrimidine). DNA is used as a template to make RNA. Once RNA is made (or once the DNA has been copied into RNA), the RNA (known as mRNA) is transcribed into protein (polypeptide). This is quite a large question to go over, how much have you learned about DNA and RNA?

kayla1234 Author
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13 years ago
not much.
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13 years ago
not much.

Well anyway, DNA serves as the coding template. RNA polymerase scans the DNA, forming mRNA (transcription). mRNA travels outside the nucleus, where it gets converted into a polypeptide (translations). The ribosome reads the mRNA and allows for amino acids to be added together to form a protein.
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13 years ago
In the nucleus the DNA molecule will unwind and unzip as the hydrogen bonds between the bases break. Free activated RNA nucleotides pair up with the exposed bases of one of the strands . As the RNA nucleotides pair up with their complementary ones, their sugar-phosphate groups are bonded together to form a sugar-phosphate backbone. This newly formed molecule is called mRNA.

This then leaves the nucleus through the nuclear pore into the cytoplasm. Here it attaches onto the small subunit of the ribosome (3 codons will be exposed on the ribisome). A tRNA (with a amino acid on it) then bonds with the complementary codon and then another tRNA comes and binds onto the next 3 codons, the amino acids at the top of the tRNA's form a peptide bond with each other, the ribisome moves along 3 codons (and the 1 tRNA molecule leaves and attaches onto another amino acid), and this process repeats again and again until a stop codon is exposed.
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13 years ago
The role of DNA is to hold the code that makes up an organism and the role of RNA is basically to execute the program written in the DNA code and to ultimately cause the propagation of the original DNA code.
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13 years ago
In case no one above answered your question, this is a great little tutorial that will help you understand it!

Best of luck Face with Rolling Eyes
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13 years ago
there are three types of rna
mRNA (messenger RNA) - carries genetic information from the nucleus to the cytoplasm
tRNA (transfer RNA) - brings amino acids to ribosomes during protein synthesis
rRNA (ribosomal RNA) - guides the translation of mRNA into a protein

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