INTRODUCTION

• Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) is the long

polymer of nucleotide bases protruded out on
a sugar phosphate backbone.
• The sugar phosphate back- bone provide
structural stability
• Nucleotide bases are in fact nitrogenous bases
in nature and they are either purine or
pyramidine
Cont.
• A DNA strand has nitrogenous bases arranged
in a specific sequence each of which connect
together with hydrogen bonds to form double
helix structure
• The bases form hydrogen bonds based on
their chemical compatibility:
– Adenine bonds with Thymine
– Guanine bonds with Cytosine
Cont.
Cont.
• The sequence of the bases is referred to as
Genetic Code as it is in fact the sequence of
ATG & Cs encoding Amino acids which in turn
form proteins.
• Genes are thought as a units of inheritance
and one gene codes for one protein which
means one gene contains information for one
protein
How DNA is information repository?
• DNA contains the genetic information stored
as a sequence of nitrogenous bases known as
Genetic Code
• The functional basis of Genetic Code lies on
the triplets of nitrogenous bases called codons
• There are 64 codons encoding 20 amino acids
which means 64 codons store information for
20 amino acids in the form of triplets of
nitrogenous bases
Cont.
• These 20 amino acids are arranged in a
specific sequences to form variety of proteins
this means the sequence of amino acid takes
the information encoded in Genetic Code and
carries it further down to form specific
proteins or peptides
Cont.
• These proteins materialize this information as
the proteome manifests the structural and
functional characteristic features on cellular
level which in turn influence the appearance,
characteristics, morphology and physiology of
whole living organism.
Why DNA is an information
repository?
• DNA is can store amount of information.
• It encodes in itself a vast amount of genetic
information as there 64 different
combinations of bases when arranged in
triplets or codons
• These 64 codons can be arranged in different
combination to code for 20 amino acids while
there is no limit to the arrangements in which
these 20 amino acids can be arranged
Cont.
• This means there could be vast variety of
amino acid sequence arrangements which
would encode vast variety of proteins
• Simply put, the DNA contains the information
in genetic code which hands it down to amino
acids and these amino acid translate this
information into proteins. In this way the
genetic information is stored and translated.
Ideal features of DNA for Genetic
Information repository
• Robustness: The DNA is structurally stable
molecule with ability to withstand
comparatively larger environmental, chemical
and physiological stress
• Inheritance fidelity: The chemical structure of
DNA allows cellular replication mechanism to
make identical copy of DNA which inherits to
the daughter cell
Cont.
• Variety as a vast room for information
encoding: The variety in base pairs and their
arrangement allows more information to be
stored which makes it ideal of storage of
genetic information
• Compaction/folding: The ability of DNA to fold
into a small micro scale entity makes it a more
suitable for storing large amount of genetic
information in the nucleus of the cell
s

Example Gene and Amount of genetic

information it stores
Example Gene and Amount of genetic
information it stores
• We have this protein called calcium-binding
protein A10 which is fairly smaller protein
with 97 amino acids
• These sequence of the amino acids looks like
this:
MPSQMEHAMETMMFTFHKFAGDKGYLTKEDLRV
LMEKEFPGFLENQKDPLAVDKIMKDLDQCRDGKV
GFQ
SFFSLIAGLTIACNDYFVVHMKQKGKK
Cont.
• The information which encodes this 97 amino
acid sequence is consisted of 294 nucleotide
bases arrange in 98 codons with each
encoding for a single amino acid while the first
one being a mere start codon
Cont.
• The sequence of the calcium-binding protein A10 gene
looks like this:
• ATG CCA TCT CAA ATG GAA CAC GCC ATG GAA ACC ATG
ATG TTT ACA TTT CAC AAA TTC GCT GGG GAT AAA G
GC TAC TTA ACA AAG GAG GAC CTG AGA GTA CTC ATG
GAA AAG GAG TTC CCT GGA TTT TTG GAA AAT CAA AA
A GAC CCT CTG GCT GTG GAC AAA ATA ATG AAG GAC
CTG GAC CAG TGT AGA GAT GGC AAA GTG GGC TTC
CAG
AGC TTC TTT TCC CTA ATT GCG GGC CTC ACC ATT GCA
TGC AAT GAC TAT TTT GTA GTA CAC ATG AAG CAG A
AG GGA AAG AAG TAG
Cont.
• It clearly explains that this gene carries
information for 97 amino acids which manifest
a functional protein or in other words this
genes has stored genetic information which of
calcium binding protein A10 in 98 chunks
• In this way the DNA serve as a warehouse of
Genetic Information where the genetic
information is stored and used for translation
and inheritance.