In many ways, RNA is the same as DNA. They both represent genetic information. They are kind of like different translations or languages of the same information. DNA has adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. RNA has all the same expect thymine is replaced with uracil. Since they have so much overlapping similarity, it is thought that the first living organisms were made from RNA, and it eventually evolved to DNA. I never really considered that nucleotides would have other functions in the cell other than genetic information, but it makes sense. It makes sense that they would be involved in intracellular signaling and regulation of enzyme activity. I would think that transcription factors and things like post-translation modifications would be the nucleotides involved in signaling s well as enzyme activity. However, I wonder how nucleotides influence energy transduction. Hydrogen bonding and van der waals interactions help stabilize the structure of DNA and helps it maintain the double helix shape. Since two hydrogen bonds are between adenine and thymine while guanine and cytosine have three hydrogen bonds, G and C would be more stable. It is important for DNA to be able to denature itself as well as renature itself. This reminds me of an on and off switch. Denaturing means breaking apart DNA bonds/structure. Increasing temperature and signals can lead to the denature of DNA. Renaturing DNA brings the nucleotides back together.
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