[jena]

Hi,

My Question: What are the main properites of nucleic acid?

So I found that

• The backbone is made of alternating residures
• The backbone is hydrophilic to OH groups of sugar.
• They form H-bond through condensation
• Their phosphate groups are ionized and charged

Is there anything else that I may be missing

Thank You  

[sdekivit]

melting temperature depends on amount of G and C

[Albert]

Moreover, nucleic acids have 5'- and 3'- ends, which give you the reading frame.

[Hbond]

The hydrogen bonding between base pairs has an additional H-bonding hydrogen that does not form a H bond leaving residual h-bonding potential within the base pairs. The bases are stabilized by resonance.

[Albert]

There are three hbonds between C and G and two between T(or U) and A. This influences density: the more C-G couples it has, the denser a nucleic acid is.

[constant thinker]

They form really long chains also.

[sdekivit]

There are three hbonds between C and G and two between T(or U) and A. This influences density: the more C-G couples it has, the denser a nucleic acid is.

and melting temperature

[Hbond]

The DNA and RNA differ by their sugar residues. The DNA has a pentose sugar that only differs by an -H for DNA and an -OH for the RNA. This adds more van der Waals to DNA making it form the double helix in an attempt to lower surface tension with water. The substitution of the base thymine of DNA instead of uracil for RNA has a similar effect. These differ only by an -CH3 for thymine and -H for uracil. The latter also imparts greater surface tension to the DNA causing it to pack as a double helix within water.