Nucleic Acid Structure:- Messenger RNAs Code for Polypeptide Chains

We now turn our attention briefly from DNA structure to the expression of the genetic information that it contains. RNA, the second major form of nucleic acid in cells, has many functions. In gene expression, RNA acts as an intermediary by using the information encoded in DNA to specify the amino acid sequence of a functional protein.

Given that the DNA of eukaryotes is largely con fined to the nucleus whereas protein synthesis occurs on ribosomes in the cytoplasm, some molecule other than DNA must carry the genetic message from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. As early as the 1950s, RNA was considered the logical candidate: RNA is found in both the nucleus and the cytoplasm, and an increase in protein synthesis is accompanied by an increase in the amount of cytoplasmic RNA and an increase in its rate of turnover. These and other observations led several researchers to suggest that RNA carries genetic information from DNA to the protein biosynthetic machinery of the ribosome. In 1961 François Jacob and Jacques Monod presented a unified (and essentially correct) pic ture of many aspects of this process. They proposed the name “messenger RNA” (mRNA) for that portion of the total cellular RNA carrying the genetic information from DNA to the ribosomes, where the messengers provide the templates that specify amino acid sequences in polypeptide chains. Although mRNAs from different genes can vary greatly in length, the mRNAs from a particular gene generally have a defined size. The process of forming mRNA on a DNA template is known as transcription.

FIGURE 8–23 H-DNA. (a) A sequence of alternating T and C residues can be considered a mirror repeat centered about a central T or C. (b) These sequences form an unusual structure in which the strands in one half of the mirror repeat are separated and the pyrimidine containing strand (alternating T and C residues) folds back on the other half of the repeat to form a triple helix. The purine strand (alternating A and G residues) is left unpaired. This structure produces a sharp bend in the DNA.

In prokaryotes, a single mRNA molecule may code for one or several polypeptide chains. If it carries the code for only one polypeptide, the mRNA is monocistronic;

FIGURE 8–24 Prokaryotic mRNA. Schematic diagrams show (a) monocistronic and (b) polycistronic mRNAs of prokaryotes. Red segments represent RNA coding for a gene product; gray segments rep resent noncoding RNA. In the polycistronic transcript, noncoding RNA separates the three genes.

if it codes for two or more different polypeptides, the mRNA is polycistronic. In eukaryotes, most mRNAs are monocistronic. (For the purposes of this discussion, “cistron” refers to a gene. The term itself has historical roots in the science of genetics, and its formal genetic definition is beyond the scope of this text.) The mini mum length of an mRNA is set by the length of the polypeptide chain for which it codes. For example, a polypeptide chain of 100 amino acid residues requires an RNA coding sequence of at least 300 nucleotides, because each amino acid is coded by a nucleotide triplet (this and other details of protein synthesis are discussed in Chapter 27). However, mRNAs transcribed from DNA are always somewhat longer than the length needed sim ply to code for a polypeptide sequence (or sequences). The additional, noncoding RNA includes sequences that regulate protein synthesis. Figure 8–24 summarizes the general structure of prokaryotic mRNAs.

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مواضيع ذات صلة

Nucleic Acid Structure:- Many RNAs Have More Complex Three-Dimensional Structures

Nucleic Acid Structure:- Certain DNA Sequences Adopt Unusual Structures

Nucleic Acid Structure:- DNA Can Occur in Different Three-Dimensional Forms

Nucleic Acid Structure:- DNA Is a Double Helix

Nucleic Acid Structure:- DNA Molecules Have Distinctive Base Compositions

Nucleic Acid Structure:- DNA Stores Genetic Information

Carbohydrates as Informational Molecules: The Sugar Code:- Lectin-Carbohydrate Interactions Are Very Strong and Highly Specific

Carbohydrates as Informational Molecules: The Sugar Code:- Lectins Are Proteins That Read the Sugar Code and Mediate Many Biological Processes

Polysaccharides:- Glycolipids and Lipopolysaccharides Are Membrane Components

Polysaccharides: - Glycoproteins Have Covalently Attached Oligosaccharides

Polysaccharides:- Proteoglycans Are Glycosaminoglycan-Containing Macromolecules of the Cell Surface and Extracellular Matrix

Polysaccharides:- Glycosaminoglycans Are Heteropolysaccharides of the Extracellular Matrix