DNA and RNA

There are actually 2 main types of nucleic substances within cell nuclei that process information. DNA is the basic form within chromosomes, that is hard-coded into every cell. RNA is a more temporary form that is used to process subsequences of DNA messages. RNA is an intermediate form used to execute the portions of DNA that a cell is using. For example, in the synthesis of proteins, DNA is copied to RNA, which is then used to create proteins: DNA->RNA->Proteins. The structure of DNA and RNA are very similar. They are both ordered sequences of 4 types of substances: ACGT for DNA, and ACGU for RNA. Thus RNA uses the same three ACG substances, but uses U (uracil) instead of T (thymine). The molecules uracil and thymine are only slightly different chemically. In DNA, there is pairing between AT and CG, and in RNA, the pairings are AU and CG, but since RNA is not double-stranded, this pairing is much rarer. Hence, RNA has the 4 substances:

• A: adenosine
• C: cytosine
• G: guanine
• U: uracil

Typically, DNA is created from RNA, and this is done by faithfully copying the sequence of base pairs, with the only change converting T to U. Hence, an RNA copy of a DNA sequence encodes the identical information, though it uses a slightly different set of 4 substances. The differences between DNA and RNA are also many. The underlying sugar molecule that traps the 4 bases is different: deoxyribose in DNA, ribose in RNA. DNA is two strands wrapped in a double-helix, but RNA is a single strand.