BIOLOGY

ASSIGNMENT
TOPIC: RNA
(Ribonucleic acid)
INTRODUCTION:
RNA, or Ribonucleic Acid, is a fundamental molecule found in
all living cells, playing essential roles in various biological
processes. It serves as a messenger, carrying genetic
information from DNA to guide protein synthesis.
WHAT IS RNA:
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule
that is essential for most biological functions,
either by performing the function itself (non
coding RNA) or by forming a template for the
production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA
and (DNA) are nuclei acids The nucleic acids
constitute one of the four major macromolecules
essential for all known forms of life. RNA is
assembled as a chain of nucletides. Cellular
organisms use messengerRNA (mRNA) to convey
genetic information (using the nitrogenous
bases of guanine, uracil, adenine, and cytosine,
denoted by the letters G, U, A, and C) that directs
synthesis of specific proteins.
Many viruses encode their genetic information
using an RNA genome.
COMPARISON WITH DNA:
The chemical structure of RNA is very similar to
that of DNA, but differs in three primary ways:
 Unlike double-stranded DNA, RNA is usually
a single-stranded molecule (ssRNA)[2] in
many of its biological roles and consists of
much shorter chains of nucleotides.
[3]
However, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)
can form and (moreover) a single RNA
molecule can, by complementary base
pairing, form intrastrand double helixes, as
in tRNA.
 While the sugar-phosphate "backbone" of
DNA contains deoxyribose, RNA
contains ribose instead.[4] Ribose has
a hydroxyl group attached to the pentose
ring in the 2' position, whereas deoxyribose
does not. The hydroxyl groups in the ribose
backbone make RNA more
chemically labile than DNA by lowering
the activation energy of hydrolysis.
 The complementary base to adenine in
DNA is thymine, whereas in RNA, it
is uracil, which is an unmethylated form of
thymine.[5]
Like DNA, most biologically active RNAs,
including mRNA, tRNA, rRNA, snRNAs, and
other non-coding RNAs, contain self-
complementary sequences that allow parts of the
RNA to fold[6] and pair with itself to form double
helices. Analysis of these RNAs has revealed that
they are highly structured. Unlike DNA, their
structures do not consist of long double helices,
but rather collections of short helices packed
together into structures akin to proteins.
In this fashion, RNAs can achieve
chemical catalysis (like enzymes). For instance,
determination of the structure of the ribosome—
an RNA-protein complex that catalyzes peptide
bond formation—revealed that its active site is
composed entirely of RNA.
STRUCTURE OF RNA:
Each nucleotide in RNA contains a ribose sugar, with
carbons numbered 1' through 5'. A base is attached to
the 1' position, in
general, adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G),
or uracil (U). Adenine and guanine are purines, and
cytosine and uracil are pyrimidines. A phosphate group
is attached to the 3' position of one ribose and the 5'
position of the next. The phosphate groups have a
negative charge each, making RNA a charged molecule
(polyanion). The bases form hydrogen bonds between
cytosine and guanine, between adenine and uracil and
between guanine and uracil.[9] However, other
interactions are possible, such as a group of adenine
bases binding to each other in a bulge, or the
GNRA tetraloop that has a guanine–adenine base-pair.
TYPES OF RNA:
Type Abbr. function distributio
n
Messenger mRNA Codes for All
RNA protein organisms
Ribosomal rRNA Translation All
RNA organisms
Transfer tRNA Membrane All
RNA integration organisms
Transfer tmRNA Translation All
messenge organisms
r RNA

TRANSLATION:
Messenger RNA (mRNA) carries information about a
protein sequence to the ribosomes, the protein synthesis
factories in the cell. It is coded so that every three
nucleotides (a codon) corresponds to one amino acid.
In eukaryotic cells, once precursor mRNA (pre-mRNA)
has been transcribed from DNA, it is processed to
mature mRNA. This removes its introns—non-coding
sections of the pre-mRNA. The mRNA is then exported
from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, where it is bound to
ribosomes and translated into its corresponding protein
form with the help of tRNA. In prokaryotic cells, which do
not have nucleus and cytoplasm compartments, mRNA
can bind to ribosomes while it is being transcribed from
DNA. After a certain amount of time, the message
degrades into its component nucleotides with the
assistance of ribonucleases.
Transfer RNA (tRNA) is a small RNA chain of about
80 nucleotides that transfers a specific amino acid to a
growing polypeptide chain at the ribosomal site of
protein synthesis during translation.
It has sites for amino acid attachment and
an anticodon region for codon recognition that binds to a
specific sequence on the messenger RNA chain through
hydrogen bonding.
Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) is the catalytic component of the
ribosomes. The rRNA is the component of the ribosome
that hosts translation.
Eukaryotic ribosomes contain four different rRNA
molecules: 18S, 5.8S, 28S and 5S rRNA. Three of the
rRNA molecules are synthesized in the nucleolus, and
one is synthesized elsewhere.
In the cytoplasm, ribosomal RNA and protein combine
to form a nucleoprotein called a ribosome. The ribosome
binds mRNA and carries out protein synthesis. Several
ribosomes may be attached to a single mRNA at any
time. Nearly all the RNA found in a typical eukaryotic cell
is rRNA.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Transcription is the process of copying a
segment of DNA into RNA. The segments of DNA
transcribed into RNA molecules that can
encode proteins produce messenger
RNA (mRNA). Other segments of DNA are
transcribed into RNA molecules called non-coding
RNAs (ncRNAs).
Both DNA and RNA are nucleic acids, which
use basepairs of nucleotides as
a complementary language. During transcription,
a DNA sequence is read by an RNA polymerase,
which produces a
complementary, antiparallel RNA strand called
a primary transcript.
.