Organic 26: Nucleosides, Nucleotides, & Nucleic Acids

Question 1

Nucleic acids

Answer 1

acidic substances present in the nuclei of cells; primary substances involved in the storage, transmission, and processing of genetic information

Question 2

Pyrimidine

Answer 2

heterocyclic (hexagonal) aromatic compound with 2 N’s meta to each other

Question 3

Purine

Answer 3

heterocyclic (hexagon bonded to pentagon)

Question 4

Nucleosides

Answer 4

glycosylamines in which a pyrimidine or purine nitrogen is bonded to the anomeric carbon of a carbohydrate

Question 5

Nucleotides

Answer 5

phosphoric acid esters of nucleosides

Question 6

Adenosine 5’-diphosphate

Answer 6

ADP

Question 7

Adenosine 5’-triphosphate

Answer 7

ATP; main energy-storing molecule for practically every form of life on Earth

Question 8

Phosphodiester

Answer 8

joins 2 nucleosides

Question 9

Polynucleotide

Answer 9

adding nucleotides to a 3’-oxygen of an existing structure is called elongation and leads ultimately to this; most important ones are DNA and RNA

Question 10

Oligonucleotides

Answer 10

polynucleotides of modest chain length (50 or fewer)

Question 11

Genome

Answer 11

the aggregate of all the genes that determine what an organism becomes

Question 12

Double helix

Answer 12

the form in which DNA normally appears in living systems; 2 complementary strands of DNA are associated with each other by hydrogen bonds between their base pairs, and each DNA strand adopts a helical shape

Question 13

Transcription

Answer 13

construction of a strand of mRNA complementary to a DNA template

Question 14

Translation

Answer 14

the “reading” of mRNA by various tRNAs, each one of which is unique for a particular amino acid

Question 15

Messenger RNA (mRNA)

Answer 15

a polynucleotide of ribose that “reads” the sequence of bases in DNA and interacts with tRNAs in the ribosomes to promote protein biosynthesis

Question 16

Genetic code

Answer 16

message carried by mRNA

Question 17

Codons

Answer 17

triplets of adjacent nucleotide bases; makes up the genetic code

Question 18

Transfer RNA (tRNA)

Answer 18

small nucleic acids, containing only about 70 nucleotides; transfer amino acids to the ribosome for incorporation into a polypeptide

Question 19

Anticodon

Answer 19

group of 3 bases complementary to the mRNA codon for the amino acid being transferred

Question 20

Ribosomal RNA (rRNA)

Answer 20

the RNA in a cell’s ribosomes

Question 21

Ribozymes

Answer 21

RNAs that catalyze biological processes