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DNA Structure Quick Activity 2.0

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58 views6 pages

DNA Structure Quick Activity 2.0

Uploaded by

dcisneros
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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DNA Nucleotides and DNA Structure QUICK ACTIVITY


Narrative by Anthony Carpi, Ph.D.

Living organisms are complex systems. Hundreds of thousands of proteins exist inside each one of us to help carry out our daily
functions. These proteins are produced locally, assembled piece-by-piece to exact specifications. An enormous amount of information
is required to manage this complex system correctly. This information, detailing the specific structure of the proteins inside of our
bodies, is stored in a set of molecules called nucleic acids.

Nucleic acids are very large molecules that have two main parts. The backbone of a nucleic acid is made of alternating sugar and
phosphate molecules bonded together in a long chain. Each of the sugar groups in the backbone is attached to a third type of
molecule called a nucleotide base.
Though only four different nucleotide bases can occur in a nucleic acid, each nucleic acid contains millions of bases bonded to it. The
order in which these nucleotide bases appear in the nucleic acid is the coding for the information carried in the molecule. The
sequences of nitrogenous bases that code for a protein is called a gene. In other words, the nucleotide bases serve as a sort of
genetic alphabet on which the structure of each protein in our bodies is encoded.

DNA gets its name from the sugar molecule contained in its backbone (deoxyribose); however, it gets its significance from its unique
structure. Four different nucleotide bases occur in DNA: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).

The versatility of DNA comes from the fact that the molecule is double-stranded. The nucleotide bases of the DNA molecule form
complementary pairs: The nucleotides hydrogen bond to another nucleotide base in a strand of DNA opposite to the original. This
bonding is specific, and adenine always bonds to thymine (and vice versa) and guanine always bonds to cytosine (and vice versa).
This bonding occurs across the molecule, leading to a double-stranded system.
The double-stranded DNA molecule has the unique ability that it can make exact copies of itself, or self-replicate. When more DNA is
required by an organism (such as during reproduction or cell growth) the hydrogen bonds between the nucleotide bases break and
the two single strands of DNA separate. New complementary bases are brought in by the cell and paired up with each of the two
separate strands, thus forming two new, identical, double-stranded DNA molecules.

The goal of this activity is for you to construct nucleotides and then with your class you will learn about the DNA polymer, replication,
and mutations to this important molecule.
PROCEDURE
1. Look at the parts of a nucleotide on page 3. QUICKLY (ie. 5 seconds per piece) color the pieces using the key below:
deoxyribose = blue guanine = brown
phosphate group = yellow adenine = green
cytosine = pink thymine = orange
2. Cut out each of the pieces.
3. Gluelue the base to the sugar by matching up dots. LOOK AT Teacher example.
4. Add the phosphate with glue by matching up the asterisks.
ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
1. What is the monomer of nucleic acids called?

2. Which nitrogenous bases are purines? Pyrimidines?

3. DNA is double stranded. Based on what you know from Chargaff’s rules: If you know the sequence on one DNA strand is 3’-
AGCTCAG-5’, what is its complementary strand?

4. Assume a 100 base pair DNA double helix has 45 cytosines. How many adenines are there?
TEACHER PREP/KEY
Create TEACHER MODELS for DAY 2 Replication and Mutations. Teacher can print pieces on a different color of paper than student.
This way, connections about semiconservative could be made.
Teacher will need to print 4 copies of the cutouts page to make the following antiparallel strand. That will create one initial strand to
show replication on day 2. If preference is for this to be done in groups, one of these strands would need to be made per group of 8
students. Remember not to put glue on rungs of the ladder so that it can be unzipped.

Strand: 3’ T A C A C C T T G G C G A C G A C T 5’

TAC ACC TTG GCG ACT


ATG TGG AAC CGC TGA

7T
7A
8G
8C

Activity could be completed with something like this if a budget is available:

https://www.carolina.com/genetic-dna-models/original-dna-puzzle-kit/171050D.pr#

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