Nucleic acids

• 46


  Number of chromosomes in the human genome
• the human genome has around 3 billion base pairs
• Some viruses use RNA instead of DNA as their genetic material, but aren't technically considered alive because they live only through hosts
• Nucleus


  Part of the cell where DNA is found in Eukaryotes
• Nucleoid


  Specialized cell region in prokaryotes that is not outlined by a membrane but where DNA is found
• Purine


  Nitrogen bases with two fused carbon-nitrogen rings
• Pyrimidines


  Nitrogen bases with one carbon-nitrogen ring
• Nucleotides can have up to 3 phosphate groups attached to their 5' carbon, but once they join a polynucleotide chain 2 of them fall off and the nucleotide only has one left
• Ester linkage


  Intermolecular covalent bond between an oxygen and a carbon
• Polynucleotide chains


  Nucleotides of DNA or RNA attached to each other through phosphodiester linkages
• Phosphodiester linkage


  When the 5' carbon of one nucleotide attaches itself to the 3' carbon of the last nucleotide on a polynucleotide chain
• Messenger RNA


  Transcribes DNA using RNA polymerase, replacing the Ts with Us, then goes to a ribosome once completed and gets separated into codons to be read and assigned amino acids
• Ribosomal RNA


  Component of ribosomes that tells mRNA where it can bind on so that it can be read properly
• Ribozymes


  rRNAs that act as enzymes to help catalyze the formation of bonds that link amino acids to form proteins
• Transfer RNA


  RNA that brings amino acids to the ribosome and ensuring that the acid added is the one specified by the mRNA
• Transfer RNAs consist of a single strand of RNA but has complementary regions that stick together to form double stranded segments, creating a complicated 3D structure important to the function of the molecule
• Regulatory RNAs


  Small, noncoding strands of RNA that help control levels of gene expression, in order to help a cell quickly react to its environment
• miRNA and siRNA are small, noncoding, regulatory RNAs