BIOC 302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Ester, Purine, Polymerization
Document Summary
Purine and pyrimidine synthesis was discussed with highlighting major metabolic control mechanisms. Polymerization involves that the phosphate on a 5" is esterified to the 3" oh of another nucleotide. The backbone in terms of its chemical nature is hydrophilic. Note the 5" and 3" directionality of oligo/polynucleotides. Also stressed were conventions used in writing nucleic acid sequences. The alkaline instability of rna was discussed in detail. Dna is normally found as a double helix whereby the two strands are found to be complementary and anti-parallel to each other. The factors involved in stabilizing this double helical structure were discussed: h-bonding, the hydrophobic effect, electrostatic effects and stacking interactions. The structure of the b-form was described in great structural detail since it is the structure of greatest biological importance. Concepts like handedness (r or l), possible and favoured conformations of the nucleotide units were highlighted in relation to the overall.
