(Deoxyribonucleic Acid)

Composition & Structure

 AMAZING DNA FACTS…
 DNA from a single human cell
extends in a single thread for
almost 2 meters long!!!

 It contains information equal

to some 600,000 printed pages
of 500 words each!!!
(a library of about 1,000 books)
 Genetic material of cells…

 GENES – units of genetic material that

CODES FOR A SPECIFIC TRAIT

 Called NUCLEIC ACIDS

 DNA is made up of repeating molecules

called NUCLEOTIDES
 DNA Nucleotide
Phosphate
Group

O 5
O=P-O CH2
O
O
N
Nitrogenous base
C4 C1 (A, G, C, or T)
Sugar
(deoxyribose)
C3 C2
A HISTORY OF DNA

 Discovery of the DNA double helix

A. Frederick Griffith – Discovers that a factor in

diseased bacteria can transform harmless bacteria
into deadly bacteria (1928)
B. Rosalind Franklin - X-ray photo of DNA.
(1952)
C. Watson and Crick - described the
DNA molecule from Franklin’s X-ray.
(1953)
 Watson & Crick proposed…
•DNA had specific pairing between the
nitrogen bases:
ADENINE – THYMINE
CYTOSINE - GUANINE

•DNA was made of 2 long stands of

nucleotides arranged in a specific
way called the “Complementary Rule”
 DNA Double Helix
5 O 3

3 O
P 5 P
5 O
1 G C 3
2
4 4
2 1
3 5
O
P P
5
T A 3

O
5
P 3 P
 Nitrogenous Bases

 PURINES
1. Adenine (A)
2. Guanine (G) A or G

 PYRIMIDINES
3. Thymine (T)
T or C
4. Cytosine (C)
 Chargaff’s Rule

 Adenine must pair with Thymine

 Guanine must pair with Cytosine

 Their amounts in a given DNA molecule will be

about the same.

T A G C
BASE-PAIRINGS
H-bonds

G C

T A
Composition of DNA?

Nitrogenous bases in DNA?

Chargaff’s rule ?