WHAT IS DNA?
DNA is the information molecule. It stores instructions for making other large
molecules, called proteins. These instructions are stored inside each of your cells,
distributed among 46 long structures called chromosomes. These chromosomes are
made up of thousands of shorter segments of DNA, called genes. Each gene stores the
directions for making protein fragments, whole proteins, or multiple specific proteins.
DNA molecules are polymers. Polymers are large molecules that are built up by
repeatedly linking together smaller molecules, called monomers. Think of how a freight
train is built by linking lots of individual boxcars together, or how this sentence is built
by sticking together a specific sequence of individual letters (plus spaces and
punctuation). In all three cases, the large structure—a train, a sentence, a DNA
molecule—is composed of smaller structures that are linked
together in non-random sequences— boxcars, letters, and, in
the biological case, DNA monomers.
DNA monomers are called nucleotides
Just like a sentence “polymer” is composed of letter
“monomers,” a DNA polymer is composed of monomers
called nucleotides. A molecule of DNA is a bunch of
nucleotide monomers, joined one after another into a very
long chain.
There are four nucleotide monomers
. The four nucleotide monomers are distinguished by their
bases
Each type of nucleotide has a different nucleobase stuck to its deoxyribose sugar.
A nucleotide contains adenine
T nucleotide contains thymine
G nucleotide contains guanine
C nucleotide contains cytosine
The sugar and acid in all four monomers are the same
All four nucleotides (A, T, G and C) are made by sticking a phosphate
group and a nucleobase to a sugar. The sugar in all four nucleotides
is called deoxyribose. It’s a cyclical molecule—most of its atoms are arranged in a ring-
structure. The ring contains one oxygen and four carbons. A fifth
carbon atom is attached to the fourth carbon of the ring.
Deoxyribose also contains a hydroxyl group (-OH) attached to the
third carbon in the ring.
Phosphodiester bonds in DNA polymers connect the 5’
carbon of one nucleotide to the 3’ carbon of another
nucleotide
The nucleotide monomers in a DNA polymer are connected by
strong electromagnetic attractions called phosphodiester bonds.
Phosphodiester bonds are part of a larger class of electromagnetic
attractions between atoms that chemists refer to as covalent bonds
The phosphodiester bonds that join one DNA nucleotide to another
always link the 3’ carbon of the first nucleotide to the 5’ carbon of
the second nucleotide. This forms a covalent bond between the oxygen sticking off the
3’ carbon of the first nucleotide, and the phosphorous atom in the phosphate group
that sticks off the 5’ carbon of the second nucleotide. These bonds are called 3’-5’
phosphodiester bonds.
Each time nucleotides are bound together, a water
molecule is removed (or “lost”) through a process
called dehydration synthesis.
Chromosomes are made of two
DNA polymers that stick
together via non-covalent
hydrogen bonds
Chromosomal DNA consists of
two DNA polymers that make up
a 3-dimensional (3D) structure
called a double helix. In a double
helix structure, the strands of
DNA run antiparallel, meaning the 5’ end of one DNA strand is parallel with the 3’ end
of the other DNA strand.
The nucleotides forming each DNA strand are
connected by noncovalent bonds, called hydrogen
bonds. The hydrogen bonds that join DNA
polymers happen between certain hydrogen atoms
on one base (called hydrogen bond donors) and
certain oxygen or nitrogen atoms on the base
across from it (called hydrogen bond acceptors).
Adenine (“A”) and Thymine (“T”) each have one
donor and one acceptor, whereas Cytosine (“C”) has one
donor and two acceptors, and Guanine (“G”) has one
acceptor and two donors.
The A nucleotides are always hydrogen bonded to T
nucleotides, and C nucleotides are always hydrogen
bonded to G nucleotides. This selective binding is
called complementary base pairing, and creates
consistency in the nucleotide sequences of the two DNA
polymers that join together to make a chromosome. This
was first observed by Erwin Chargaff, who developed
methods for counting nucleotides in DNA samples, and
found that the percent of A nucleotides always equaled
the percent of T nucleotides, and the percent of G
nucleotides always equaled the percent of C nucleotides
(within a margin of error). Now, we know that
complementary base pairing can be explained by
reference to hydrogen bonding between the donors and
acceptors on the bases of each nucleotide: A nucleotides
and T nucleotides have a match (one donor and one acceptor each), and C nucleotides
and G nucleotides have a match (the former has one donor and two acceptors, while
the latter has one acceptor and two donors).
