Nucleic acid structure

Nucleic acid structure

Nucleic acid structure refers to the structure of nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA It is often divided into four different levels:

  • Primary structure—the raw sequence of nucleobases of each of the component DNA strands;
  • Secondary structure—the set of interactions between bases, i.e., which parts of which strands are bound to each other;
  • Tertiary structure—the locations of the atoms in three-dimensional space, taking into consideration geometrical and steric constraints; and
  • Quaternary structure—the higher-level organization of DNA in chromatin, or to the interactions between separate RNA units in the ribosome or spliceosome.

See also


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Nucleic acid structure prediction — This article is about the computational prediction of nucleic acid structure. For experimental methods, see Nucleic acid structure determination. Nucleic acid structure prediction is a computational method to determine nucleic acid secondary and… …   Wikipedia

  • Nucleic acid structure determination — This article is about the experimental determination of nucleic acid structure. For computational methods, see Nucleic acid structure prediction. Structure probing of nucleic acids is the process by which biochemical techniques are used to… …   Wikipedia

  • Nucleic acid design — can be used to create nucleic acid complexes with complicated secondary structures such as this four arm junction. These four strands associate into this structure because it maximizes the number of correct base pairs, with A s matched to T s and …   Wikipedia

  • Nucleic acid — Nucleic acids are biological molecules essential for life, and include DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid). Together with proteins, nucleic acids make up the most important macromolecules; each is found in abundance in all… …   Wikipedia

  • Nucleic acid thermodynamics — is the study of the thermodynamics of nucleic acid molecules, or how temperature affects nucleic acid structure. For multiple copies of DNA molecules, the melting temperature (Tm) is defined as the temperature at which half of the DNA strands are …   Wikipedia

  • Nucleic acid double helix — Double helix redirects here. For other uses, see Double helix (disambiguation). Two complementary regions of nucleic acid molecules will bind and form a double helical structure held together by base pairs. In molecular biology, the term double… …   Wikipedia

  • Nucleic acid secondary structure — The secondary structure of a nucleic acid molecule refers to the basepairing interactions within a single molecule or set of interacting molecules, and can be represented as a list of bases which are paired in a nucleic acid molecule.[1] The… …   Wikipedia

  • Nucleic acid analogues — Not to be confused with degenerate bases. For phosphoramidite synthesis of nucleic acids, see Oligonucleotide synthesis. RNA with its nucleobases to the left and DNA to the right. Nucleic acid analogues are compounds structurally similar (analog) …   Wikipedia

  • Nucleic acid tertiary structure — Example of a large catalytic RNA. The self splicing group II intron from Oceanobacillus iheyensis.[1] The tertiary structure of a nucleic acid is its precise three dimensional structure, as defined by the atomic coordinates.[2] …   Wikipedia

  • Nucleic acid sequence — A series of codons in part of a mRNA molecule. Each codon consists of three nucleotides, usually representing a single amino acid. The sequence or primary structure of a nucleic acid is the composition of atoms that make up the nucleic acid and… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”