 DNA means Deoxyribo nucleic acid

 DNA is a nucleic acid

 It was first reported by Friedrich Miescher
 DNA is an information molecule
 It stores instructions for making larger
molecules called proteins
 These instructions are stored and distributed
among 46 or 23 pairs of chromosomes
 Chromosomes are made up of short
segments of DNA called Genes
 Each Gene stores information for making a
part of protein, whole protein or multiple
proteins
 In 1953 Watson & Crick have proposed the
double helical model for DNA
 The two strands of DNA are complementary
to each other
 The directions are known as 5’ and 3’
 If one strand runs in 5’ to 3’ direction, the
other runs in 3’ to 5’ direction
 The two strands are interveined to make the
DNA helix
 The two DNA strands are antiparallel to each
other
 A DNA chain is composed of smaller units
called Nucleotides
 Nucleotides are having 3 components
 1) Pentose sugar 2) Nitrogenous base 3)
Phosphate group
 Nucleoside = pentose sugar + nitrogenous
base
 Nucleoside + Phosphate = Nucleotide
 DNA is hydrophilic in nature
 Chargaff rule : This rule states that in all DNA
Purines and Pyrimidines must have a 1:1 ratio
 A pentose sugar has 5 carbon atoms
 Ribose sugar is found in RNA. In this to each
carbon atom one oxygen atom is attached
 Deoxyribose sugar is found in DNA. In this at
2nd carbon it lacks the oxygen atom
 The sugars are linked together by a
phosphodiester bond
 This differnce is important for the enzymes to
identify DNA and RNA
 Nitrogenous base is a molecule that contains
Nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen
 These different elements can arrange in rings
 Based on the number of rings they are divided
into 2 categories
 1) Purines – single ring molecules 2)
Pyrimidines – double ring molecules
 There are two types of Purines 1) Adenine 2)
Guanine
 Pyrimidines are of 3 types 1) Thymine 2) Cytosine
and 3) Uracil
 Uracil is present in RNA only where is Thymine is
present in DNA only
 Adenine always pairs with Thymine and
Guanine with Cytosine
 Adenine and Thymine forms 2 hydrogen
bonds between them whereas Guanine and
Cytosine form 3 hydrogen bonds between
them
 A Phosphate group is just a Phosphorus atom
bound to 4 oxygen atoms
 It is the structural support to DNA & RNA
molecules
 It is made up of alternating sugar and phosphate
groups
 The sugar molecule of one nucleotide links to the
phosphate group of adjascent nucleotide
 The sugar is the 3’ end and the phosphate is the
5’ end of each nucleotide
 Strong phosphodiester bonds adhere sugar with
the phosphage group
 Connected to each sugar is a nitrogenous base
 There are 3 types of bonds in DNA
 1) between sugar and nitrogenous base –
glycosidic bond
 2) between the nitrogen bases – hydrogen
bond
 3) between the sugar and the phosphate –
phosphodiester bond