RNA

Another Important Usage of Acronyms (AIUA)

Ribonucleic acid is another one of those really long, hard to pronounce words that are associated with genetics. This is another instance when you all should be thankful for acronyms, because ribonucleic acid is called RNA, and now you won’t have to stumble over the word and not know how to pronounce it. But that’s enough about spelling and pronunciation. The real issue here is the second, but no less important, nucleic acids.

RNA was the nucleic acid that came first. The reason we bring this up is because there was a long debate about what came first, protein or DNA. Protein can’t be produced without DNA, and DNA can’t exist without protein. Geneticists have figured out that RNA can produce both protein and DNA, so they figured that it came first.

Ribonucleic acid is different in multiple ways from DNA. First of all, it is not in the double helix structure. It comes in either molecules or strands. It also uses different nitrogenous bases. Instead of thymine, uracil is present. The nucleotides that are associated with ribonucleic acid are different too. As stated before, different nitrogenous bases are used, and the sugars used in nucleotides are ribose, and not deoxyribose. When you’re speaking about DNA, there is only one type. But, RNA can get confusing because there are three types.

We cannot write about just RNA on the whole, because the three types are different. Sure, they use the same nucleotides and use the same general name, but they are remarkably distinct. First, we should cover messenger RNA, or mRNA. Messenger RNA is a mirrored form of DNA, so it comes in strands. The DNA splits in half down the middle, and then the mRNA is produced with the bases that would pair with the ones on the DNA (A with U, C with G). Messenger RNA has many sets of three nucleotides, or codons, which are perfectly complementary to the codons on transfer RNA, or tRNA. The tRNA is an RNA molecule with a codon attached to it. It works with a ribosome, which is basically a ribosomal RNA (which you'll learn about next) and two protein particles, to make protein. The ribosomal RNA, or rRNA, is an RNA particle that doesn't have a codon attached to it. It is what "calls" the tRNA in the process of translation, which you will learn about in Genetics II.

Now that you know about the basics of genetic substances, like deoxyribonucleic acid or chromosomes, you should move on to the Genetics Cycle. Read on to find out more about the wonders of life.

Introduction
Cells to Chromosomes
DNA
RNA
Genetic Cycle