Additional Study
Guide
Chapter 17 – Nucleic Acids
1. What are the monomers (building blocks) of nucleic acids?
Nucleotides (contain a phosphate + base + sugar)
2. What are the polymers of nucleic acids?
DNA and RNA
3. What are the differences between DNA and RNA?
a. DNA has deoxyribose sugar; RNA has ribose sugar
b. DNA contains thymine; RNA contains uracil
4. What are the components of a nucleoside (nucleic acid
backbone)?
Nucleoside= sugar + base
Nucleotide= phosphate + sugar + base
5. What are the bonds found nucleic acids and what do they
join together?
a. Phosphodiester bonds (backbone)
b. Hydrogen bonds (nitrogenous bases- joins nitrogenous bases of
complementary strands)
6. What are the complementary nitrogenous base pairs?
a. Adenine bonds with thymine (for DNA) or uracil (for RNA)
b. Guanine bonds with cytosine
DNA: A-T, C-G
RNA: A-U, C-G
7. What are the three major types of RNA and their functions?
a. Messenger RNA (mRNA)- carries genetic information from DNA in
the nucleus to the ribosomes in the cytoplasm
b. Transfer RNA (tRNA)- interprets the genetic information in mRNA
and brings specific amino acids to the ribosome for protein synthesis
, c. Ribosomal RNA (rRNA)- the most abundant type of RNA, is
combined with proteins to form ribosomes.
8. What are chromosomes? What do they contain? What are
histones?
a. Chromosomes- thread-like structures of nucleic acids and protein
located inside the nucleus. Carries genetic information
b. Made of protein and a single molecule of DNA
c. Histones- a protein that helps condense chromosomes into chromatin
9. Know the functions of the following enzymes:
a. Helicase- a protein that pulls or unzips the DNA strands apart
b. Primase- an enzyme that builds short RNA strands called primers on
each DNA strand using activated RNA nucleotides
c. DNA polymerase- an enzyme that starts making DNA by adding
activated DNA nucleotides to the primers until a full copy is made of
each side, forming two chains of DNA, each containing an original DNA
strand and a new DNA strand.
d. DNA ligase- an enzyme that converts RNA primers to DNA and seals
the gaps.
e. RNA polymerase- builds a strand of RNA complementing one side of
the DNA, known as the template strand
f. Reverse transcriptase- used to produce a viral DNA strand
10. What is the central dogma? What is the result of
transcription? What is the result of translation?
a. Central dogma: DNA-RNA-Protein
b. Transcription- Results in RNA
c. Translation- Results in short sequences of amino acids called
polypeptides that get stitched together and become proteins
11. What are codons? What type of RNA are they found on?
a. Codons are a sequence of three nucleotides, together form a unit of
genetic code in a DNA or RNA molecule.
b. found on messenger RNA (mRNA).
12. What are anticodons? What type of RNA are they found
on?
a. Anticodon- a trinucleotide sequence complementary to that of a
corresponding coding in messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence.
b. Found in transfer RNA (tRNA)