What are the structure of RNA and DNA and how one might be used to create the other?

1 Answer
Jun 17, 2018

DNA is used as a template to make RNA.

Explanation:

DNA is a long polymer with deoxyriboses and phosphate backbone. It’s made from 4 different bases (nucleotides), adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). But only adenine can only form a base pair with thymine and cytosine can only form a base pair with guanine.

RNA is a polymer with a ribose and phosphate backbone and with four different bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil (U). Instead of pairing with thymine, adenine pairs with uracil.

http://ib.bioninja.com.au/standard-level/topic-2-molecular-biology/26-structure-of-dna-and-rna/dna-versus-rna.html

The process of transcription transfers the cell’s genetic information from DNA to RNA. The goal of transcription is to make an RNA copy of a gene's DNA sequence.

The main enzyme involved in transcription is RNA polymerase, which uses a single-stranded DNA template to synthesize a complementary strand of messenger RNA (mRNA). RNA polymerase binds to a sequence of DNA called the promoter, found near the beginning of a gene. Once bound, RNA polymerase unzips the DNA strands. Then the RNA polymerase reads the DNA’s base pairs one pair at a time and creates the complementary mRNA strand needed for translation.

In the complementary strand, the mRNA strand will have A where the DNA has T; U where the DNA has A; G where the DNA has C; and C where the DNA has G. The mRNA carries the same information as the non-template (coding) strand of DNA , but it contains uracil instead of thymine.

https://www.quizover.com/microbiology/test/elongation-rna-transcription-by-openstax

Hope this helps!