polymer of nucleotide bases protruded out on a sugar phosphate backbone. • The sugar phosphate back- bone provide structural stability • Nucleotide bases are in fact nitrogenous bases in nature and they are either purine or pyramidine Cont. • A DNA strand has nitrogenous bases arranged in a specific sequence each of which connect together with hydrogen bonds to form double helix structure • The bases form hydrogen bonds based on their chemical compatibility: – Adenine bonds with Thymine – Guanine bonds with Cytosine Cont. Cont. • The sequence of the bases is referred to as Genetic Code as it is in fact the sequence of ATG & Cs encoding Amino acids which in turn form proteins. • Genes are thought as a units of inheritance and one gene codes for one protein which means one gene contains information for one protein How DNA is information repository? • DNA contains the genetic information stored as a sequence of nitrogenous bases known as Genetic Code • The functional basis of Genetic Code lies on the triplets of nitrogenous bases called codons • There are 64 codons encoding 20 amino acids which means 64 codons store information for 20 amino acids in the form of triplets of nitrogenous bases Cont. • These 20 amino acids are arranged in a specific sequences to form variety of proteins this means the sequence of amino acid takes the information encoded in Genetic Code and carries it further down to form specific proteins or peptides Cont. • These proteins materialize this information as the proteome manifests the structural and functional characteristic features on cellular level which in turn influence the appearance, characteristics, morphology and physiology of whole living organism. Why DNA is an information repository? • DNA is can store amount of information. • It encodes in itself a vast amount of genetic information as there 64 different combinations of bases when arranged in triplets or codons • These 64 codons can be arranged in different combination to code for 20 amino acids while there is no limit to the arrangements in which these 20 amino acids can be arranged Cont. • This means there could be vast variety of amino acid sequence arrangements which would encode vast variety of proteins • Simply put, the DNA contains the information in genetic code which hands it down to amino acids and these amino acid translate this information into proteins. In this way the genetic information is stored and translated. Ideal features of DNA for Genetic Information repository • Robustness: The DNA is structurally stable molecule with ability to withstand comparatively larger environmental, chemical and physiological stress • Inheritance fidelity: The chemical structure of DNA allows cellular replication mechanism to make identical copy of DNA which inherits to the daughter cell Cont. • Variety as a vast room for information encoding: The variety in base pairs and their arrangement allows more information to be stored which makes it ideal of storage of genetic information • Compaction/folding: The ability of DNA to fold into a small micro scale entity makes it a more suitable for storing large amount of genetic information in the nucleus of the cell s
Example Gene and Amount of genetic
information it stores Example Gene and Amount of genetic information it stores • We have this protein called calcium-binding protein A10 which is fairly smaller protein with 97 amino acids • These sequence of the amino acids looks like this: MPSQMEHAMETMMFTFHKFAGDKGYLTKEDLRV LMEKEFPGFLENQKDPLAVDKIMKDLDQCRDGKV GFQ SFFSLIAGLTIACNDYFVVHMKQKGKK Cont. • The information which encodes this 97 amino acid sequence is consisted of 294 nucleotide bases arrange in 98 codons with each encoding for a single amino acid while the first one being a mere start codon Cont. • The sequence of the calcium-binding protein A10 gene looks like this: • ATG CCA TCT CAA ATG GAA CAC GCC ATG GAA ACC ATG ATG TTT ACA TTT CAC AAA TTC GCT GGG GAT AAA G GC TAC TTA ACA AAG GAG GAC CTG AGA GTA CTC ATG GAA AAG GAG TTC CCT GGA TTT TTG GAA AAT CAA AA A GAC CCT CTG GCT GTG GAC AAA ATA ATG AAG GAC CTG GAC CAG TGT AGA GAT GGC AAA GTG GGC TTC CAG AGC TTC TTT TCC CTA ATT GCG GGC CTC ACC ATT GCA TGC AAT GAC TAT TTT GTA GTA CAC ATG AAG CAG A AG GGA AAG AAG TAG Cont. • It clearly explains that this gene carries information for 97 amino acids which manifest a functional protein or in other words this genes has stored genetic information which of calcium binding protein A10 in 98 chunks • In this way the DNA serve as a warehouse of Genetic Information where the genetic information is stored and used for translation and inheritance.