In this article we will discuss about the physico-chemical properties of nucleic acids. The size of nucleic acids varies immensely. The smallest ribonucleic acids are the tRNAs which comprise about 80 nucleotides; their molecular weight is about 30 000. Ribosomal ribonucleic acids are larger; they contain several thousands of nucleotides and their molecular weight can exceed 1 million. The RNA [...]
In this article we will discuss about the formation of purine and pyrimidine deoxyribonucleosies. Formation of Purine Deoxyribonucleosides-5'- Triphosphates: The deoxyribonucleotides are simply formed by reduction of the corresponding ribonucleotides. Thus reduction of carbon 2' of ribose, takes place in E.coli and animal tissues at the ribonucleosides-5'-diphosphates stage, at the cost of a protein of low molecular weight, thioredoxin, comprising [...]
The biosynthesis of the DNA must consist in a replication or duplication. The study of the DNA structure as proposed by Crick and Watson (see fig. 6-15) gives an idea of the mechanism of this replication. Each nucleotide of the template DNA chain need only be recognized by a complementary nucleotide before the latter is incorporated at the end of [...]