DNA Supercoiling and Structure
ASSOCIATED READING: pg 84-86, 90, 97, 102 in Campbell (11th ed); pg 377-379 in OpenStax
(Since OpenStax is a PDF, you can easily use the "search" function to highlight every place that a key word appears in the textbook. To search using a Windows computer, use CTRL + F. To search using a Mac, use COMMAND + F).
KEY WORDS and CONCEPTS:
- nucleic acid
- nucleotide
- pyrimidines
- purines
- nitrogenous base
- deoxyribose sugar
- double helix
- antiparallel
- phosphodiester bond
- phosphate group
- eukaryote
- nuclear envelope
- prokaryote
- organismal strain
- What is the function of DNA?
- What is the monomer in a DNA molecule?
- Are plant and animal cells prokaryotic or eukaryotic? What about bacterial cells?
- Within what region of a eukaryotic cell would one find DNA? What about within a prokaryotic cell?
- What composes the "backbone" of a DNA strand?
- What two structures would be connected by a phosphodiester bond?
- What kind of bond connects the two strands in a DNA double helix?
- How many hydrogen bonds connect adenine to thymine? How about guanine to cytosine?
- (You may need to explore beyond the textbook to answer the following): What does it mean if two organisms are from different strains? For example, there are different strains of rats, humans, plants and bacteria. What makes one strain different from another?