What is the relationship between Proteins and Nucleic acids?
Nucleic acids (DNA & RNA) and Proteins are two of the most essential biomolecules for every living body. They play an important role in the gene expression mechanism.
Nucleic acids include the codons that code for the 20 amino acids that build up the polypeptide chains of various proteins.
Altogether there are 20 amino acids that are produced universally in all living beings by translation from RNA. And, these amino acids add up in varied proportions and ratio to form the polypeptide chains of the 80,000 to 400,000 different varieties of proteins.
Nucleic acids like DNA and RNA are the polymers of nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of a pentose sugar, a nitrogenous base, and a phosphate group.
It’s the arrangement of the nitrogenous bases in the polynucleotide that stores the information to code for amino acids of the proteins.
While. Proteome includes the entire composition of proteins that is or can be expressed by a cell, tissue, or organism. DNA transcripts to mRNA which then translates amino acids.
Amino acids are organic compounds that combine to form proteins. Amino acids and proteins are the building blocks of life.
Proteins are linear polymers formed by linking the α-carboxyl group of one amino acid to the α-amino group of another amino acid with a peptide bond.
So, nucleic acids (DNA & RNA) are the factory that produces (expresses) genetic information in the form of amino acids. These amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.
So, how come the two words nucleic acids and proteins work in proper co-ordination and are often related? What’s the catch?
We’ll understand it all here in this article. So, just keep reading…
What are Nucelic Acids?
Nucleic acids are the biopolymers, or large biomolecules, essential to all known forms of life. The term nucleic acid is the overall name for DNA and RNA.
DNA & RNA are called Nucleic acids because they were initially discovered in the nucleus of the cell, and due to the presence of phosphate groups (related to phosphoric acid) they became to be known as nucleic acids.
DNA & RNA are the two genetic molecules present inside the living cells. Both are equally important in a living body.
The things that DNA can do, can’t be done by RNA. And, the jobs than RNA can do, is unique to only RNA.
Yes, nucleic acids i.e the DNA, and RNA are polymers of nucleotides. In both DNA & RNA, the monomers are known as nucleotides. All of the nucleotides combine together to form a polynucleotide. The polynucleotide is the polymer of many nucleotides.
Each nucleotide in DNA is formed of a Deoxyribose Pentose Sugar, a Phosphate Group, and one of any four Nitrogenous bases: Adenine(A), Guanine(G), Cytosine(C), and Thymine(T).
And, each nucleotide in RNA is formed of a Ribose Pentose Sugar, a Phosphate Group, and one of any four Nitrogenous bases: Adenine(A), Guanine(G), Cytosine(C), and Uracil(U).
The nucleic acids are inheritable in nature that is they can be passed form one generation to the other. Nucleic acids are the most important and abundant biomolecules inside the cell.
Their main function is to create, inherit, encode, and then store genetic information of every living cell on Earth.
What are Proteins?
Proteins are macromolecules formed by polypeptide chains of amino acids.
A peptide is actually formed when two or more amino acids join together by peptide bonds, and a polypeptide is a chain of many such peptides.
A protein contains at least one or more polypeptides. Therefore, proteins are long chains of amino acids held together by peptide bonds.
An amino acid is made up of a basic amino group (−NH2), an acidic carboxyl group (−COOH), and an organic R group that is unique to each amino acid.
Each amino acid is made up mostly of the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, but they may also contain phosphorus or sulfur. Each assembled chain of amino acids folds in a specific way, producing a 3-D protein with a specific cellular function.
On an everage, each eukaryotic protein has an average size that includes about 472 amino acids attached together, whereas a bacterial protein can have about 283 amino acids.
A total of 20 different amino acids exist in proteins and so hundreds to thousands of these repeating amino acids are attached to each other in long chains to form a protein.
The genes (sections of DNA) form mRNA that encodes proteins by forming chains of amino acids. These proteins perform various cellular actions at the molecular level.
Therefore, gene expression is a major process that happens at the molecular level that helps determine how nucleic acids form proteins from a variety of 20 amino acids universal to all living beings.
For example, the 3-D hemoglobin protein molecule is made up of four polypeptide chains of two alpha chains and two beta chains. The alpha chains consist of 141 amino acid residues each, while beta chains consist of 146 amino acid residues each.
ANSWERED: What is the relationship between Proteins and Nucleic acids?
The relationship between Proteins and Nucleic acids is that both find their application in the gene expression process of the living body. During the gene expression in every living cell of any organism, it is seen that the nucleic acids code for amino acids to create proteins.
Nucleic acids are the genetic materials in our cells and it has been inherited/derived from our biological parents and determines that many of our characteristics are similar to our parents.
How these inherited genetic materials will express themselves? They will do so by the formation of proteins. Proteins are not derived from our parents but produced of its own in everyone’s body.
Proteins don’t carry any heritable information between generations but, nucleic acids do. Nucleic acids get inherited during the process of reproduction (mitosis or meiosis).
In fact, when the nucleic acids get inherited to the next generation, it again starts to code for amino acids to make proteins. Proteins bring on the necessary changes in the body of the offspring.
The major relationship is that nucleic acids are the main information-carrying molecules of the cell, and, by directing the process of protein synthesis, they determine the inherited characteristics of every living thing.
The sequence of the codons in nucleic acids determines the sequence of amino acids in a protein. Each codon is composed of three nucleotides with nitrogen bases, and codes for a particular amino acid or stop codon.
The sequence of amino acids determines the structure of a protein, which determines its function.
A codon is a sequence of three DNA or RNA nucleotides that corresponds with a specific amino acid or stop signal during protein synthesis.
However, it is also important to note that all nucleic acids don’t take part in protein synthesis. Non-coding DNA sequences are nucleic acid components of an organism’s DNA that do not encode protein sequences.
These non-coding DNA sequences are found between coding DNA sequences as introns and contain few, if any, in the mitochondria.
Some non-coding DNA is transcribed into functional non-coding RNA molecules (e.g. transfer RNA, ribosomal RNA, and regulatory RNAs) and not proteins. Altough these can be seen with close association with proteins produced from coding DNA sequences.
Key relationships between Nucleic Acids and Proteins
1. The phenotypic characteristics of organisms depend directly on proteins. And, the genotypic characteristics of organisms depend directly on nucleic acids. The gene expression process relates the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics together as nucleic acids take part in protein synthesis.
2. The Central Dogma Model of Biology states the flow of genetic information from DNA to mRNA to the amino acid sequence of polypeptide forming the proteins. Proteins are synthesized in accordance with the sequences of the four bases, adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine in DNA. The information is transcribed into molecules of messenger RNA and is translated into proteins by the intervention of the genetic code.
3. Change in one can cause a change in the other. Meaning that, if the base sequence of DNA changes due to mutation, then it can also change the protein synthesis process as well and can lead to the termination of the gene, or produce harmful proteins, or can even produce more helpful proteins.
4. Changes in the composition of the base sequences in DNA can take place in living organisms, and these changes can affect the phenotypic characteristics of the next generation. For example: Sickle cell anemia disease in humans is caused by a mutation in the β-globin gene found on chromosome 11, which makes the RBCs become rigid, sticky, and misshapen.
5. We know that over time evolution takes place. The evolutionary factors like natural selection, migration, genetic drift, mutation, and non-random mating causes a diverse change in the nucleic acid components of the organisms over generations. This leads to evolution due to the production of a wide-changing variety of proteins in the descendents as compared to those of the ancestors.
6. Proteins and nucleic acids work in close association with each other during various cellular activities. Just like in the case of ribosomes, rRNA is formed from the rDNA section of a gene, and that rRNA joins with various ribosomal proteins to form ribosomes. Another one is RNA interference (RNAi) that controls the gene expression, and it needs various proteins to do its work.
7. Proteins are literally everywhere throughout the body i.e. in the muscles, bones, skins, hairs, and virtually every other body parts or tissues. Whereas, DNA & RNA holds the information where, how, and when those proteins should occur and function in the body.
8. Inside the cell, DNA is seen inside the nucleolus whereas, RNA is seen in the nucleus and the cytoplasm roaming freely. On the other hand, proteins are almost at every part of the cell and in fact, the cell and its components are made up of proteins.
9. Nucleic acids just hold the genetic information, and proteins are produced using that genetic information to help in cell storage, cell signaling, structural support, provide defense, make enzymes, cell transportation, make cell receptors, etc.
What do Nucleic Acids and Proteins have in common?
Nucleic Acids and Proteins look different in shape and size and each one has a different function.
Although both look different and act differently, nucleic acids do contain the same elements as proteins: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus or sulphur in some.
The difference is that the elements are assembled in vastly different ways and one is created from the other with structure and composition change. That is, DNA contains the information that a cell uses, with the help of RNA, to make proteins.
Nucleic acids are very large macromolecules composed of repetitive units of nucleotides as building blocks. Whereas, proteins are also very large macromolecules composed of amino acids as building blocks.
Nucleic acids (both DNA & RNA) are made of nucleotides, with each nucleotide having a pentose sugar (five-carbon sugar), and a nitrogen-containing base (either adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, or uracil), and a phosphate group.
Proteins are made up of hundreds or thousands of smaller units called amino acids, with each amino acid having a basic amino group (−NH2), an acidic carboxyl group (−COOH), and an organic R group.