DNA structure and function Nucleic acids DNA Molecular structure of DNA Antiparallel structure of DNA strands Leading and lagging strands in DNA replication Speed and precision of DNA replication

Knowing the structure of DNA unlocked the door to understanding many aspects of DNA's function, such as how it is copied and how the information it carries can be used to produce proteins.

The carbon atoms of the deoxyribose sugar in DNA nucleotides are labeled with numbers accompanied by prime marks. Prime marks look similar to apostrophes (e.g., 3').

The semi-conservative model, in which each strand of DNA serves as a template to make a new, complementary strand, seemed most likely based on DNA's structure. The models were tested by …

DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, consists of nucleotides forming a double helix structure. Nucleotides contain a phosphate group, deoxyribose sugar, and a nitrogenous base. The bases, …

Chromosomal DNA consists of two DNA polymers that make up a 3-dimensional (3D) structure called a double helix. In a double helix structure, the strands of DNA run antiparallel, meaning the 5’ end of …

A video shows the three-dimensional shape of a DNA double helix. The double helix consists of two DNA strands wound around each other, with their sugar-phosphate backbones on the outside of the …

Summary: DNA is divided up into functional units called genes, which may specify polypeptides (proteins and protein subunits) or functional RNAs (such as tRNAs and rRNAs). Information from a gene is …

How DNA carries this information, and how it is put into action by cells and organisms, is complex, fascinating, and fairly mind-blowing, and we’ll explore it in more detail in the section on molecular …

In the G1 phase, the cell grows and takes in nutrients. In the S phase, the cell's DNA is replicated. Each replicated chromosome consists of two sister chromatids connected at the centromere. The G2 …