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The Chemical Structure of DNA

Topic

  • Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
  • DNA & RNA

Resource Type

  • Videos
  • Animations

Level

High School — GeneralHigh School — AP/IBCollege

Duration

00:03:25
Saved By
23 Users
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View in Spanish

Description

This animation explores the chemical components and bonds of the nucleotides that make up DNA.

As shown in the animation, DNA is a polymer of units called nucleotides, which contain deoxyribose sugars and nitrogenous bases. The nucleotides are linked in a directional manner via phosphodiester bonds between their sugars. The nitrogenous bases also form hydrogen bonds with one another based on predictable base pairing rules: adenine (A) pairs with thymine (T), and cytosine (C) pairs with guanine (G).

Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different parts of DNA’s structure.

Key Terms

adenine, base pair, cytosine, double helix, guanine, nucleic acid, nucleotide, purine, pyrimidine, thymine

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.

Accessibility Level (WCAG compliance)

PDF files meet criteria. Video files meet criteria.

Version History

Date Published 02.05.10
Date Updated 04.27.22

Materials

HD (M4V) 60 MB
HD (WMV) 49 MB
SD (M4V) 21 MB
SD (WMV) 17 MB
Transcript (PDF) 154 KB
Spanish dub (MP4) 56 MB
Transcript - Español (PDF) 190 KB

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