Depiction of the adenine-thymine Watson-Crick base pair.
Base pairs, which form between specific nucleobases (also termed nitrogenous bases), are the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA and RNA. Dictated by specific hydrogen bonding patterns, Watson-Crick base pairs (guanine-cytosine and adenine-thymine) allow the DNA helix to maintain a regular helical structure that is independent of its nucleotide sequence. The complementary nature of this based-paired structure provides a backup copy of all genetic information encoded within double-stranded DNA. The regular structure and data redundancy provided by the DNA double helix make DNA well suited to the storage of genetic information, while base-pairing between DNA and incoming nucleotides provides the mechanism through which DNA polymerase replicates DNA, and RNA polymerase transcribes DNA into RNA. Many DNA-binding proteins can recognize specific base pairing patterns that identify particular regulatory regions of genes.
Intramolecular base pairs can occur within single-stranded nucleic acids. This is particularly important in RNA molecules (e.g., transfer RNA), where Watson-Crick base pairs (G-C and A-U) permit the formation of short double-stranded helices, and a wide variety of non-Watson-Crick interactions (e.g., G-U or A-A) allow RNAs to fold into a vast range of specific three-dimensional structures. In addition, base-pairing between transfer RNA (tRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) forms the basis for the molecular recognition events that result in the nucleotide sequence of mRNA becoming translated into the amino acid sequence of proteins.
The size of an individual gene or an organism's entire genome is often measured in base pairs because DNA is usually double-stranded. Hence, the number of total base pairs is equal to the number of nucleotides in one of the strands (with the exception of non-coding single-stranded regions of telomeres). The haploid human genome (23 chromosomes) is estimated to be about 3.2 billion base pairs long and to contain 20,000–25,000 distinct protein-coding genes.[1][2][3] A kilobase (kb) is a unit of measurement in molecular biology equal to 1000 base pairs of DNA or RNA.[4]
Contents
- 1 Hydrogen bonding and stability
- 2 Base analogs and intercalators
- 3 Examples
- 4 See also
- 5 References
- 6 Further reading
- 7 External links
Hydrogen bonding and stability[edit]
Top, a GC base pair with three hydrogen bonds. Bottom, an AT base pair with two hydrogen bonds. Non-covalent hydrogen bonds between the pairs are shown as dashed lines.
Hydrogen bonding is the chemical interaction that underlies the base-pairing rules described above. Appropriate geometrical correspondence of hydrogen bond donors and acceptors allows only the "right" pairs to form stably. DNA with high GC-content is more stable than DNA with low GC-content, but, contrary to popular belief, the hydrogen bonds do not stabilize the DNA significantly, and stabilization is mainly due to stacking interactions.[5]
The larger nucleobases, adenine and guanine, are members of a class of double-ringed chemical structures called purines; the smaller nucleobases, cytosine and thymine (and uracil), are members of a class of single-ringed chemical structures called pyrimidines. Purines are complementary only with pyrimidines: pyrimidine-pyrimidine pairings are energetically unfavorable because the molecules are too far apart for hydrogen bonding to be established; purine-purine pairings are energetically unfavorable because the molecules are too close, leading to overlap repulsion. Purine-pyrimidine base pairing of AT or GC results in proper duplex structure. The only other purine-pyrimidine pairings would be AC and GT and UA (in RNA); these pairings are mismatches because the pattern of hydrogen donors and acceptors do not correspond. The GU pairing, with two hydrogen bonds, does occur fairly often in RNA (see wobble base pair).
Paired DNA and RNA molecules are comparatively stable at room temperature but the two nucleotide strands will separate above a melting point that is determined by the length of the molecules, the extent of mispairing (if any), and the GC content. Higher GC content results in higher melting temperatures; it is, therefore, unsurprising that the genomes of extremophile organisms such as Thermus thermophilus are particularly GC-rich. On the converse, regions of a genome that need to separate frequently — for example, the promoter regions for often-transcribed genes — are comparatively GC-poor (for example, see TATA box). GC content and melting temperature must also be taken into account when designing primers for PCR reactions.
Base analogs and intercalators[edit]
Main article: Nucleic acid analogues
Chemical analogs of nucleotides can take the place of proper nucleotides and establish non-canonical base-pairing, leading to errors (mostly point mutations) in DNA replication and DNA transcription. This is due to their isosteric chemistry. One common mutagenic base analog is 5-bromouracil, which resembles thymine but can base-pair to guanine in its enol form.
Other chemicals, known as DNA intercalators, fit into the gap between adjacent bases on a single strand and induce frameshift mutations by "masquerading" as a base, causing the DNA replication machinery to skip or insert additional nucleotides at the intercalated site. Most intercalators are large polyaromatic compounds and are known or suspected carcinogens. Examples include ethidium bromide and acridine.
Examples[edit]
The following DNA sequences illustrate pair double-stranded patterns. By convention, the top strand is written from the 5' end to the 3' end; thus, the bottom strand is written 3' to 5'.
- A base-paired DNA sequence:
ATCGATTGAGCTCTAGCGTAGCTAACTCGAGATCGC
- The corresponding RNA sequence, in which uracil is substituted for thymine where uracil takes its place in the RNA strand:
AUCGAUUGAGCUCUAGCGUAGCUAACUCGAGAUCGC
Length measurements[edit]
The following abbreviations are commonly used to describe the length of a D/RNA molecule:
- bp = base pair(s)—one bp corresponds to approximately 3.4 Å (340 pm) of length along the strand
- kb (= kbp) = kilo base pairs = 1,000 bp
- Mb = mega base pairs = 1,000,000 bp
- Gb = giga base pairs = 1,000,000,000 bp.
For case of single-stranded DNA/RNA units of nucleotides are used, abbreviated nt (or knt, Mnt, Gnt), as they are not paired. For distinction between units of computer storage and bases kbp, Mbp, Gbp, etc. may be used for base pairs.
The Centimorgan is also often used to imply distance along a chromosome, but the number of base pairs it corresponds to varies widely. In the Human genome, the centimorgan is about 1 million base pairs.[6][7]
See also[edit]
- List of Y-DNA single-nucleotide polymorphisms
References[edit]
- ^ Moran, Laurence A. (2011-03-24). "The total size of the human genome is very likely to be ~3,200 Mb". Sandwalk.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
- ^ "The finished length of the human genome is 2.86 Gb". Strategicgenomics.com. 2006-06-12. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
- ^ International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium (2004). "Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome". Nature 431 (7011): 931–45. doi:10.1038/nature03001. PMID 15496913.
- ^ Andrew F. Cockburn, Mary Jane Newkirk, Richard A. Firtel, Cell, Volume 9, Issue 4, Part 1, December 1976, Pages 605-613, ISSN 0092-8674, doi:10.1016/0092-8674(76)90043-X.
- ^ Peter Yakovchuk, Ekaterina Protozanova and Maxim D. Frank-Kamenetskii. Base-stacking and base-pairing contributions into thermal stability of the DNA double helix. Nucleic Acids Research 2006 34(2):564-574.
- ^ "NIH ORDR - Glossary - C". Rarediseases.info.nih.gov. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
- ^ Matthew P Scott, Paul Matsudaira, Harvey Lodish, James Darnell, Lawrence Zipursky, Chris A Kaiser, Arnold Berk, Monty Krieger (2004). Molecular Cell Biology, Fifth Edition. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman. p. 396. ISBN 0-7167-4366-3. "...in humans 1 centimorgan on average represents a distance of about 7.5x105 base pairs."
Further reading[edit]
- Watson JD, Baker TA, Bell SP, Gann A, Levine M, Losick R (2004). Molecular Biology of the Gene (5th ed.). Pearson Benjamin Cummings: CSHL Press. (See esp. ch. 6 and 9)
- Astrid Sigel, Helmut Sigel, Roland K. O. Sigel, ed. (2012). Interplay between Metal Ions and Nucleic Acids. Metal Ions in Life Sciences 10. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2172-2. ISBN 978-9-4007-2171-5.
- Clever, Guido H.; Shionoya, Mitsuhiko (2012). "Chapter 10. Alternative DNA Base-Pairing through Metal Coordination". Interplay between Metal Ions and Nucleic Acids. pp. 269–294. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2172-2_10.
- Megger, Dominik A.; Megger, Nicole; Mueller, Jens (2012). "Chapter 11. Metal-Mediated Base Pairs in Nucleic Acids with Purine and Pyrimidine-Derived Neucleosides". Interplay between Metal Ions and Nucleic Acids. pp. 295–317. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2172-2_11.
External links[edit]
- DAN—webserver version of the EMBOSS tool for calculating melting temperatures
