Overview
- All cellular organisms uses DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) to store genetic information
- In all biological macromolecules there’s an intimate relationship between structure and function
- E.g. DNA’s structure makes it great at storing information
DNA’s construction
- DNA is a linear polymer, which means they are large molecules made up of many smaller molecules
Definition of a polymer
A polymer is a molecule made up of numerous small molecules called monomers that are joined together to form a larger molecule. The word “polymer” is made up of two parts: “poly” which means “many,” and “mer” which means “unit.” A linear polymer means just a long straight chain.
- The small molecules that make up DNA are called nucleotides.
- Each nucleotide contains a phosphate group, a sugar molecule (called deoxyribose), and a nitrogenous base.
- Join to each deoxyribose is one of four possible bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).