Nucleotides come together like a puzzle, to make the DNA molecule. It looks like a twisted ladder. This shape is called a double helix.
Nucleotides do not match up randomly. They use the base pair rule. This rule states that in DNA Adenine will always pair with Thymine, Thymine will always pair with Adenine, Guanine will always pair with Cytosine, and Cytosine will always pair will Guanine. A=T C=G If you have the strand of DNA: GTCAGT The complementary strand will be: CAGTCA G matches with C, T matches with A, C matches with G, A matches with T, G matches with C, and T matches with A When DNA makes up copy from one of the strands, this is called replication |
Location: Bases: Shape: Sugar: |
DNA
-Nucleus -A,G,C,T -2 strands -Deoxyribose |
RNA
-Cytoplasm -A,G,C,U -1 strand -Ribose |