Research Assignment on The Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)

The Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA
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The Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
Introduction
The deoxyribonucleic acid commonly referred to as the DNA, is the hereditary material in all the human beings. Studies have shown that almost all cells in human body have the same DNA. DNA is located in the cell nucleus and due to its location it’s called nuclear DNA. Apart from the nucleus DNA can also be located in the mitochondrial where it’s referred to as mitochondrial DNA. The DNA has a unique structure and the diameter of a DNA molecule is 2 nm.
The Structure of DNA
The structure of the DNA is composed of four nucleotides. Each nucleotide contain: adenine, cytosine, thymine or guanine (Watson, Baker, Bell, & Gann, 2014). The amount of adenine is equal to the amount of thymine and the guanine which is equal to the amount of cytosine. The amount of purines is equal to the amount of the pyrimidine. DNA is a double stranded structure and has stands which are opposite and not parallel to each other (Watson, Baker, Bell, & Gann, 2014).
The thymine and the adenine are linked to each there by hydrogen bond which also links the cytosine and the guanine. Nucleotides which are on the opposite strands are linked by the phosphodiester bonds. By the structure of the DNA the hydrogen bond links to the inside while the phosphodiester links to the outside.
Nucleotides and Bases
A nucleotide is composed of nitrogen which contains base. The nitrogen is composed of five carbon sugars and a phosphate group. The bases are nitrogen containing compounds which are either the pyrimidenes or purines (Watson, Baker, Bell, & Gann, 2014). Nucleotides are the subunits of the nucleic acids which forms the DNA. Each number of carbons on sugar of nucleotide is formed by a prime mark (Watson, Baker, Bell, & Gann, 2014).
The Base Pairing of DNA
The base paring of DNA originate from the purines and the pyrimidines. In this paring the amount of purines must be equal to the amount of the pyrimides and the number of adenine should be equal to the number of guanine (Watson, Baker, Bell, & Gann, 2014). This paring occurs by paring equal amount of cytosine to guanine and equal amount of thymine to adenine.
The Replication of DNA
This is the process which two identical replicas are produced by one original DNA molecule. It is this process that forms the basis for biological inheritance. This biological process occurs in all living organisms.
The process starts by the original DNA which is a portion start to separate the hydrogen bond between the bases. After the separation of the hydrogen bond free nucleotides are attracted to their complementary bases. Once the new nucleotides have lined up, they are joined together by the enzyme DNA polymerase (Susan Koba, 2010). Finally all the nucleotides are joined to form a complete polynucleotide chain using DNA polymerase, in this way two identical strands of DNA are formed. In this formation each strand retains half of the original DNA material and this method of replication is called semi conservative method this is because each of the two stranded daughter is only half new (Susan Koba, 2010).
The replication of DNA begins at a sp...