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What the Heck is DNA?. Or, Were My Genes Really Made by Levi?. James Watson & Francis Crick Cambridge Univ., April, 1953. Frederick Griffith, 1928. Griffith showed that information from dead cells could “transform” live ones. He hypothesizes that it is DNA. Not many believe him.
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What the Heck is DNA? Or, Were My Genes Really Made by Levi?
Frederick Griffith, 1928 Griffith showed that information from dead cells could “transform” live ones. He hypothesizes that it is DNA. Not many believe him.
The Components of DNA • Alpha Helix in the B Form • 4 Bases: Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Cytosine C, and Guanine (G) • Purines: A, and G • Pyrimidines: T, and G • A goes with T, and G goes with C • Deoxyribose and Phosphate make up the sides of the DNA “ladder”
The Bases and the Sugars are flat like steps in a ladder. The Sugars and Phosphates Support the Bases. A Nucleotide Consists of a Base, Sugar, and Phosphate.
Rosalind Franklin and Her Famous X-Ray Diffraction Photo of DNA – Clearly a Double Helix
Two Hydrogen Bonds Three Hydrogen Bonds
DNA Requires Two Sides For Self-Replication Step 1. The Complementary Sides Separate
Strands are antiparallel. • Strands run from 5’to3’. • Sugars are held to adjacent ones by phosphodiester bonds. • Nucleotides can only be added to the 3’ end of a chain. • Hydrogen bonds hold the two sides of the ladder together.
DNA Polymerase is Restricted To: • Adding Nucleotides to a Pre-existing Chain. • Adding Nucleotides to the 3’ End
What’s The Problem With The 5’ Daughter Strand? • The usual replication machinery cannot complete the 5’ end of the daughter DNA strand. • Chromosomes become shorter with every replication and cell division. • Replication stops when the telomere becomes too short.
Replication Mistakes • Errors occur, one in ten thousand base pairs • Errors usually fixed by DNA polymerase • Final error rate is approx. 1 in a billion • U.V. damage is fixed automatically
Telomerase enxtends the 3’ end so that the 5’ end can reach its full length. Most multicellular organisms lack telomerase. Germ cells and cancer cells have telomerase.