An interesting look into why DNA and RNA might use different nucleic acids for what seems to be essentially the same purpose (namely Thymine and Uracil).
by Piter Kehoma Boll
About a year ago, while I was in my class of Techniques of Molecular Diagnosis, an interesting doubt sprouted: why does DNA use thymine instead of uracil as RNA does?
I hope everybody reading this knows about nucleic acids and the difference between DNA and RNA. As a very quick review:
RNA (ribonucleic acid) is a polymer made of ribonucleotides, compound molecules made of three parts, or smaller molecules: a nitrogenous base (adenine, uracil, cytosine or guanine), a ribose sugar and a phosphate group.
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is similar, but instead of uracil it has thymine, and instead of a ribose sugar is has a deoxyribose, so that it is made of deoxyribonucleotides. Another difference is that DNA is a double chain twisted helicoidally, where two nitrogenous bases (each from one of the chains) are connected. Adenine is always connected to thymine and cytosine always to…
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