DNA is a linear molecule composed of four types of smaller chemical molecules called nucleotide bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).

The double helix is a description of the molecular shape of a double-stranded DNA molecule. In 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson first described the molecular structure of DNA, which they called a “double helix,” in the journal Nature.

The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T).

DNA has three types of chemical component: phosphate, a sugar called deoxyribose, and four nitrogenous bases—adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Two of the bases, adenine and guanine, have a double-ring structure characteristic of a type of chemical called a purine.

In turn, each nucleotide is itself made up of three primary components: a nitrogen-containing region known as a nitrogenous base, a carbon-based sugar molecule called deoxyribose, and a phosphorus-containing region known as a phosphate group attached to the sugar molecule (Figure 1).

DNA is made of chemical building blocks called nucleotides. These building blocks are made of three parts: a phosphate group, a sugar group and one of four types of nitrogen bases. To form a strand of DNA, nucleotides are linked into chains, with the phosphate and sugar groups alternating.

There are three different DNA types:

• A-DNA: It is a right-handed double helix similar to the B-DNA form.
• B-DNA: This is the most common DNA conformation and is a right-handed helix.
• Z-DNA: Z-DNA is a left-handed DNA where the double helix winds to the left in a zig-zag pattern.

DNA vs. RNA – 5 Key Differences and Comparison

The portions of DNA that are transcribed into RNA are called “genes”. RNA is very similar to DNA. As in DNA, in RNA the bases come in four chemical forms, and the information in RNA is encoded in the sequence in which these bases are arranged. As in DNA, in RNA one finds adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G).

DNA contains the genetic information of all living organisms. Proteins are large molecules made up by 20 small molecules called amino acids. All living organisms have the same 20 amino acids, but they are arranged in different ways and this determines the different function for each protein.

Because DNA is negatively charged, molecular biologists often use agarose gel electrophoresis to separate different sized DNA fragments when DNA samples are subjected to an electric field — due to their negative charge, all the DNA fragments will migrate toward the positively charged electrode, but smaller DNA …

You’re right: DNA is built of both acidic and basic components. The acidic component of DNA is its phosphate group, and the basic component of DNA is its nitrogenous base.

The phosphate backbone of DNA is negatively charged due to the bonds created between the phosphorous atoms and the oxygen atoms. Each phosphate group contains one negatively charged oxygen atom, therefore the entire strand of DNA is negatively charged due to repeated phosphate groups.

1. in a single-stranded RNA virus, a plus strand is one having the same polarity as viral mRNA and containing codon sequences that can be translated into viral protein. A minus strand is a noncoding strand that must be copied by an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase to produce a translatable mRNA.

nontemplate strand

Antisense is the non-coding DNA strand of a gene. A cell uses antisense DNA strand as a template for producing messenger RNA (mRNA) that directs the synthesis of a protein.