News tagged with nucleic acids

New life form found on Earth: Deadly arsenic breathes life into organisms (Update, Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Evidence that the toxic element arsenic can replace the essential nutrient phosphorus in biomolecules of a naturally occurring bacterium expands the scope of the search for life beyond Earth, ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 02, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (48) | comments 27 | with audio podcast

Simpler times: Did an earlier genetic molecule predate DNA and RNA?

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the chemistry of the living world, a pair of nucleic acids—DNA and RNA—reign supreme. As carrier molecules of the genetic code, they provide all organisms with a mechanism for ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jan 09, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (28) | comments 117 | with audio podcast

Chemists see first building blocks to life on Earth

Scientists at The University of Manchester have developed an experiment that sheds new and fascinating light on how life on Earth might have begun.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 13, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (25) | comments 13

Is the shape of a genome as important as its content?

If there is one thing that recent advances in genomics have revealed, it is that our genes are interrelated, "chattering" to each other across separate chromosomes and vast stretches of DNA. According to researchers ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 29, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (13) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scientists to test if life on Mars could be related to life on Earth

Over the course of the Earth's history, about a billion tons of rocks have been exchanged between the Earth and Mars. Scientists think it's possible that one or more of those rocks might have contained tiny ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 04, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 22 | with audio podcast weblog

Jet-propelled imaging for an ultrafast light source

John Spence, a physicist at Arizona State University, is a longtime user of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he has contributed to major advances in lensless imaging. ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jul 29, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (11) | comments 1

Powerful supercomputer peers into the origin of life

(PhysOrg.com) -- Supercomputer simulations at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are helping scientists unravel how nucleic acids could have contributed to the origins of life.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Oct 04, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Revisited human-worm relationships shed light on brain evolution

"Man is but a worm" was the title of a famous caricature of Darwin's ideas in Victorian England. Now, 120 years later, a molecular analysis of mysterious marine creatures unexpectedly reveals our cousins as worms, indeed.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Feb 09, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Gold Nanoparticles Delivery Platinum Warheads to Tumors

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cisplatin is one of the most powerful and effective drugs for treating a wide variety of cancers, but serious side effects ultimately limit the drug's use and effectiveness. Now, however, researchers have ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 2

Clean Genes: Chemists Cull the Good Synthetic DNA from the Bad

(PhysOrg.com) -- Birds do it, bees do it. Even scientists in labs do it. But the scientists can't hold a candle to the birds and the bees, who can make gobs of primo DNA without even thinking about it.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jul 23, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers develop new way to see single RNA molecules inside living cells

Biomedical engineers have developed a new type of probe that allows them to visualize single ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules within live cells more easily than existing methods. The tool will help scientists ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 06, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Scientists identify novel approach to view inner workings of viruses

Since the discovery of the microscope, scientists have tried to visualize smaller and smaller structures to provide insights into the inner workings of human cells, bacteria and viruses. Now, researchers at the National Institute ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How E. coli grows its 'nose'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Self-assembling and self-organizing systems are the Holy Grails of nanotechnology, but nature has been producing such systems for millions of years. A team of scientists has taken a unique ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jul 07, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Accelerated lab evolution of biomolecules could yield new generation of medicines

Scientists at Harvard University have harnessed the prowess of fast-replicating bacterial viruses, also known as phages, to accelerate the evolution of biomolecules in the laboratory. The work, reported this week in the journal ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Apr 10, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Artificial cells, simple model for complex structure

A simple, chemical materials model may lead to a better understanding of the structure and organization of the cell according to a Penn State researcher.

Chemistry /

created Feb 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Nucleic acid

A nucleic acid is a macromolecule composed of chains of monomeric nucleotides. In biochemistry these molecules carry genetic information or form structures within cells. The most common nucleic acids are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). Nucleic acids are universal in living things, as they are found in all cells and viruses. Nucleic acids were first discovered by Friedrich Miescher in 1871.

Artificial nucleic acids include peptide nucleic acid (PNA), Morpholino and locked nucleic acid (LNA), as well as glycol nucleic acid (GNA) and threose nucleic acid (TNA). Each of these is distinguished from naturally-occurring DNA or RNA by changes to the backbone of the molecule.

For more information about Nucleic acid, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: rna