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Chapter 10: Problem 13

A carbohydrate group is an integral part of a nucleoside. a. What advantage does the carbohydrate provide? Polynucleotides are formed through formation of a sugarphosphate backbone. b. Why might ribose be preferable for this backbone instead of glucose? c. Why might 2-deoxyribose be preferable to ribose in some situations?

Short Answer

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a. The carbohydrate in a nucleoside provides structural stability and allows the formation of sugar-phosphate backbone. b. Ribose is preferable over glucose because its pentose structure is more suited for creating the sugar-phosphate backbone. c. 2-deoxyribose is preferable over ribose in scenarios requiring greater stability as it is less prone to hydrolysis and enzyme attack due to the lack of an oxygen atom on the second carbon.

Step by step solution

01

Part A: Advantage of Carbohydrate in Polynucleotides

Carbohydrates, such as ribose in RNA and deoxyribose in DNA, form an integral part of nucleosides and provide stability to the structure. They allow the formation of a sugar-phosphate backbone, connecting the individual nucleotides to form polynucleotides, which are the building blocks of DNA and RNA. This backbone provides benefits such as structural stability for the genetic material and helps the molecule to resist cleavage.
02

Part B: Preference of Ribose over Glucose

Ribose is the carbohydrate component of RNA (Ribonucleic acid) and structurally, it’s more suitable for creating the sugar-phosphate backbone in nucleotides due to its pentose structure which includes a ring of four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom. On the other hand, Glucose is a hexose sugar meaning it has six carbon atom structure, which makes it less ideal for creating the sugar-phosphate backbone of nucleotides.
03

Part C: Preference of 2-deoxyribose over Ribose

2-deoxyribose, which is the sugar found in DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), lacks an oxygen atom on the second carbon in the ring structure as compared to ribose in RNA. This subtle difference makes DNA more stable than RNA. The absence of the oxygen atom reduces the likelihood of hydrolysis, making DNA less susceptible to enzyme attack, and therefore, preferable in situations where greater stability is required.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Draw the principal ionic species of \(5^{\prime}\) -GMP occurring at pH 2.

Adhering to the convention of writing nucleotide sequences in the \(5^{\prime} \rightarrow 3^{\prime}\) direction, what is the nucleotide sequence of the DNA strand that is complementary to d-ATCGCAACTGTCACTA?

The DNA strand that is complementary to the template strand copied by RNA polymerase during transcription has a nucleotide sequence identical to that of the RNA being synthesized (except T residues are found in the DNA strand at sites where U residues occur in the RNA). An RNA transcribed from this nontemplate DNA strand would be complementary to the mRNA synthesized by RNA polymerase. Such an RNA is called antisense RNA because its base sequence is complementary to the "sense" mRNA. One strategy to thwart the deleterious effects of genes activated in disease states (such as cancer) is to generate antisense RNAs in affected cells. These antisense RNAs would form double- stranded hybrids with mRNAs transcribed from the activated genes and prevent their translation into protein. Suppose transcription of a cancer-activated gene yielded an mRNA whose sequence included the segment \(5^{\prime}-\) UACGGUCUAAGCUGA. What is the corresponding nucleotide sequence \(\left(5^{\prime} \rightarrow 3^{\prime}\right)\) of the template strand in a DNA duplex that might be introduced into these cells so that an antisense RNA could be transcribed from it?

Gene expression is controlled through the interaction of proteins with specific nucleotide sequences in double-stranded DNA. a. List the kinds of noncovalent interactions that might take place between a protein and DNA. b. How do you suppose a particular protein might specifically interact with a particular nucleotide sequence in DNA? That is, how might proteins recognize specific base sequences within the double helix?

Restriction endonucleases also recognize specific base sequences and then act to cleave the double-stranded DNA at a defined site. Speculate on the mechanisms by which this sequence recognition and cleavage reaction might occur by listing a set of requirements for the process to take place.
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