Question

Sugars are essential components of nucleotides and nucleic acids. a.Provide the precise chemical name (anomer, isomer and ring form) of the circular stereoisomers of the sugar mojety that is found in dATP. b.Using the language of this unit explain how the chemistry of the sugar component of RNA impacts on the stability of the molecule.

Answer 1

dATP is deoxyadenosine triphosphate

In this structure the sugar moiety used is deoxyribose which is a pentose sugar having formula C₅H₁₀O_5. C'-2 carbon epimer of the sugar D-arabinose makes D-ribose

In RNA β-D-ribofuranose is used for its backbone. while in DNA deoxyribose is used. The deoxyribose found in DNA differs from ribose in RNA by a hydrogen atom in place of the hydroxyl group at C2'. This hydroxyl group helps in prevention of cleavage of DNA and make it stable. While RNA is prone to splicing due to the absence of this hydroxyl group.