DNA Transcription

DNA Transcription In DNA transcription nucleotide polymers, RNA (ribose nucleic acid) and DNA (deoxyribose nucleic acid) are involved. RNA being a single helix and DNA a double helix, there are some notable differences between the two nucleotide polymers. The nucleotides in DNA include are Guanine (G), Thymine (T), Adenine (A), and Cytosine(C). On the contrary, RNA is composed of C, A and G with T being replaced by Uracil (U). Another major difference between the two is that DNA lacks oxygen molecule, hence its name deoxyribose. ("Transcription and translation," 2002) Using the base pairing rule, predicting the sequence of a complementary strand that can pair with it is quite easy. The complimentary DNA sequence is usually the reverse of the sequence. Now, given the DNA nucleotide sequence CGTACGCCGAGACGTCAAC, the complimentary sequence will be found by reversing the sequence, while adhering to the base-paring rule. Therefore, the result is GTTGACGTCTCGGCGTACG. In the transcription process, RNA runs on the template strand of the DNA. In essence, transcription is the formation of the messenger RNA (mRNA). How does information on DNA get copied to RNA? In the synthesis of RNA, the base pairing-rule is followed. However, there is a little difference from the usual DNA pairing. In transcription, the RNA complement has C paired with G and vice versa, while A (DNA) is paired with Uracil (U) instead of Thymine (T) as seen in DNA replication. (Alberts, 2002) Therefore, the mRNA strand from CGTACGCCGAGACGTCAAC will read GUUGACGUCUCGGCGUACG. When this transcription process is complete, we have two separate strands, an mRNA strand which is a single helix and a double helix DNA strand. (Alberts, 2002) References Alberts, B. et al(2002). Molecular Biology of the Cell. (4th Ed.). New York: Retrieved from /books/NBK26887/ Base Pairing. (2006, May 24). Retrieved from http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/B/BasePairing.html Transcription and Translation (2002). Retrieved from http://users.rcn.com...