Like DNA, the nucleic acid RNA is a polynucleotide - it is made up of many nucleotides linked together in a long chain
Like DNA, RNA nucleotides contain the nitrogenous bases Adenine, Guanine and Cytosine
Unlike DNA, RNA nucleotides never contain the nitrogenous base Thymine - in place of this they contain the nitrogenous base Uracil
Unlike DNA, RNA nucleotides contain the pentose sugar ribose (instead of deoxyribose)
Unlike DNA, RNA molecules are only made up of one polynucleotide strand (single-stranded)
Each RNA polynucleotide strand is made up of alternating ribose sugars and phosphate groups linked together, with the nitrogenous bases of each nucleotide projecting out sideways from the single-stranded RNA molecule
The sugar phosphate bonds (between different nucleotides in the same strand) are covalent bonds known as phosphodiester bonds
These bonds form what is known as the sugar-phosphate backbone of the RNA polynucleotide strand
Example of an RNA molecule: mRNA (messenger RNA)
The transcript copy of a gene that encodes a specific polypeptide
RNA is a polymer made up of repeating mononucleotide sub-units. It forms a single strand in which each nucleotide is made up of:
The pentose sugar ribose
One of the organic bases A, G, C and U
A phosphate group
The two types of RNA important in protein synthesis:
messenger RNA (mRNA)
transfer RNA (tRNA)
During protein synthesis, an anticodon pairs with the three complementary organic bases that make up the codon on mRNA
Codon - The sequence of three bases on mRNA that codes for a single amino acid
Genome - The complete set of genes in a cell
Proteome - The full range of proteins that a cell is able to produce
