nucleic acids

It is called acid to that substance that, in solution, increases the concentration of hydrogen ions. When acids combine with bases, they allow the development of you go out.

Among the different types of acids, the nucleic acids. Is about polymers that are formed from certain monomers that are related through phosphodiester bonds. The sequence of these bonds allows the development of extensive chains that can include millions of monomers.

It should be noted that a polymer is a macromolecule composed of multiple monomers, which are molecules smaller in size. In the specific case of nucleic acids, they are polymers made up of monomers that are linked by phosphodiester bonds (a kind of covalent bond).

The ribonucleic acid (RNA) and the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are two types of nucleic acids. These acids store and transmit the genetic data of the living beings.

In the case of RNA, is composed of a linear chain of ribonucleotides, which can be found in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. The mode of construction of the RNA and other substances that form the cells is in the DNA, which houses the instructions related to genetics. What we know as a gene, in fact, is a segment of DNA.

Beyond their functions, it is possible to differentiate between these classes of nucleic acids by their molecular mass (in the RNA is less than in the DNA), its string types (typically, the RNA is single-stranded and the DNA, double-stranded), their nitrogenous bases and their carbohydrates.

The information genetics is contained in the nitrogenous bases, which have a cyclic structure of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon. Some of them are the adenine, the guanine and the cytosine. Two types of nitrogenous bases are recognized: purines and the pyrimidines, which are derived from purine and pyrimidine, respectively.

When you talk about the structure of nucleic acids, reference is made to its morphology, and this is studied in depth with examples such as RNA and DNA. Thanks to the observation of this structure in detail, it is possible to find the genetic code.

The concept of genetic code, for its part, is the group of rules that are obtained when translating a sequence nucleotides in RNA. It is a kind of glossary in which certain equivalences are established between the language of proteins and the nitrogenous bases of RNA. The following general characteristics of the genetic code are recognized:

* it is universal, since practically all living beings use it, with the exception of some triplets, in bacteria;

* Each triplet has a particular meaning, which is why it is unambiguous;

* each triplet can indicate a read termination or encode an amino acid;

* each amino acid has several triplets;

* no triplet shares nitrogenous bases with others;

* its reading is one-way.

Returning to the structure of nucleic acids, whose development is based on the model of scientists Francis Crick and James Watson, it is divided into the following four parts:

* primary: if we start from the chains that make up DNA, the structure Primary is defined as the sequence of nitrogenous bases of each one of them;

* high school: it is the group of interactions that take place between nitrogenous bases;

* tertiary: taking into account the limits of steric and geometric type, this structure is the location of the atoms in three dimensions;

* quaternary: in the case of RNA, it refers to the interactions that take place between its units, either in the spiceosome or in the ribosome. If we talk about DNA, on the other hand, it is its most complex organization in chromatin.