Bio1151b
Chapter
16
The Molecular Basis of Inheritance
The physical structure of nucleic acids such as RNA or
was
discovered
by Watson and Crick from photos of
crystallography made by Rosalind
Franklin.
DNA is a double
, with the sugar-phosphate backbones on the
outside,
and complementary pairs of
bases
on the
inside.
Weak
bonds form between the base
pairs:
(A) always pairs with
(T), and
(C) always pairs with
(G).
Summary.
The base-pairing rules are used for DNA
: each strand acts as a
for building a
strand
in a
process.
The
replication
occurs in three phases:
,
, and
.
Initiation
begins at
of replication, where the two strands are unwound by
. The enzyme
adds a sequence of RNA
nucleotides at the
replication
.
Polymerization always proceeds 5' to 3'. There is a
strand of continuous synthesis, and a
strand where synthesis occurs in
fragments.
Elongation
is the addition of more
to the
, catalyzed by DNA polymerase
III.
Termination
occurs when
replaces the primer with DNA nucleotides, and DNA
joins together the fragments to
complete
the new strand.
Summary.
Base-pairing is about 99.999% accurate, an error occurs about 1 in
base pairs. DNA
can "proofread" during polymerization and replace most incorrect
nucleotides.
Uncorrected or damaged
DNA
can be repaired by
enzymes.
The overall error rate is about 1 in
nucleotides, or 99.99999999%
accurate.