Essay by Anonymous UserJunior High, 9th gradeA+, January 1996

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Deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid are two chemical substances involved in transmitting genetic

information from parent to offspring. It was known early into the 20th century that chromosomes, the genetic

material of cells, contained DNA. In 1944, Oswald T. Avery, Colin M. MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty

concluded that DNA was the basic genetic component of chromosomes. Later, RNA would be proven to

regulate protein synthesis. (Miller, 139)





plants, and mitochondria in plants and animals.

All DNA molecules contain a set of linked units called nucleotides.

Each nucleotide is composed of three

things. The first is a sugar called deoxyribose. Attached to one end of the sugar is a phosphate group, and at

the other is one of several nitrogenous bases. DNA contains four nitrogenous bases. The first two, adenine and

guanine, are double-ringed purine compounds. The others, cytosine and thymine, are single-ringed pyrimidine

compounds. (Miller, 141) Four types of DNA nucleotides can be formed, depending on which nitrogenous

base is involved.

The phosphate group of each nucleotide bonds with a carbon from the deoxyribose. This forms what is called

a polynucleotide chain. James D. Watson and Francis Crick proved that most DNA consists of two

polynucleotide chains that are twisted together into a coil, forming a double helix. Watson and Crick also

discovered that in a double helix, the pairing between bases of the two chains...