Biology Key Skills
explanatory Essay
1813 words
Biology Key Skills
Poodles make more poodles. Sheep make more sheep. Replication is a
basic fact of life. All living things make other living things that
are to one degree or another duplicates of themselves. What is the
mechanism behind all this? The answer lies in a molecule called DNA.
In 1869, Friedrich Miescher extracted a substance, which he called
nuclein from the nuclei of white blood cells. Nuclein later became
known as nucleic acid. Living cells contain two kinds of nucleic
acids-ribonucleic acid (RNA) which contains the sugar, ribose and
deoxyribonucleic (DNA) which contains the sugar, deoxyribose. Nucleic
acids are found in all living things, from the simplest protozoan to
the most complex forms of animal and plant life
.
Two young scientists-James Watson and Francis Crick-finally pieced
together the precise structure of DNA. The model proposed by Watson
and Crick for the structure of DNA is shaped like a twisted ladder.
This type of figure is known as a double helix. The sides of the
twisted ladder are made up of alternating units of deoxyribose and
phosphate. The rungs of the ladder are composed of paired nitrogen
bases. Adenine always pairs with thymine, and guanine always pairs
cytosine. The bases are held together by hydrogen bonds.
Watson and Crick's model also suggested a way in which DNA could make
copies of itself. First, the ladder untwists. Then the bases break
apart. Since and adenine nucleotide can only bond with thymine, and
guanine can only bond with cytosine, new units are assembled in
precisely the same order as old. When the splitting and pairing
processes are competed, two identical DNA molecules stand in the place
of one. The process by which DNA makes copies of itself is called
replication.
DNA replication
DNA replication begins with a partial unwinding of the double helix at
an area known as the replication fork. This unwinding is accomplished
by an enzyme known as DNA helicase. This unwound section appears under
electron microscopes as a "bubble" and is thus known as a replication
In this essay, the author
- Explains that the new dna strands can grow only in the 5' to 3' range.
- Explains that rna primers and then fill in the gaps with dna are the job of yet.
- Explains that the double helix of dna is attached to the region of the gene.
- Explains that the nitrogenous base uracil (u) is used in rna in place of t.
- Explains that the phosphate is linked to the 5' carbon of the sugar in both rnas.
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