DNA Workshop : Worksheet KEY
BASIC BACKGROUND – From reading and notes
1. DNA is a “macromolecule” or polymer, made up of
many repeating monomers. Each monomer or building
block is called a nucleotide. What three basic units
make up a single nucleotide?
Phosphate Group
Sugar (Deoxyribose)
Nitrogenous Base
2. All nucleotides are the same except for the type of
base they attach to. There are four different
nitrogenous (DNA) bases; name the four different
nitrogenous bases:
a) Adenine
c) Cytosine
b) Guanine
d) Thymine
3. Which bases have double rings? Adenine &Guanine
4. What name is collectively given to any base that has
two rings?
PURINE
5. Bases complimentary pair up with other bases, but a
given base can only bond up with its perfect match.
Give the name of the bases that always match the base
given below.
a) Adenine : THYMINE
b) Cytosine : GUANINE
6. What type of bond forms between two
complimentary bases? HYDROGEN
First Website :
1. What is the proper name of the spiral shape that
DNA takes?
DOUBLE HELIX
2. If you took a typical piece of DNA from a Eukaryotic
Cell (animal, plant etc.) and it you built a model of it to
the same scale as the image on the screen, how far
would it stretch?
Image Size would be 1600 km
Actual Size : 5 cm
3. Give the correct term for the procedure where DNA
copies itself.
REPLICATION
Second Website :
1. How many H- Bonds form between :
A–T :
TWO
C – G : THREE
* Click on the “Structure Of Molecule” to see the
structure of DNA.
2. What is the size of the distance between turns of the
Helix?
* Hint: there are a thousand nanometers (nm) in a
single micrometer (um), and a thousand (um) in one
mm.
3.4 nm  0.0034 um  0.0000034 mm
Part 2 : Gel Electrophoresis: Third Website
1. What do restriction enzymes do? They cut DNA at
specific sequencing sites.
2. What size of DNA fragments tends to move most
easily through the agarose?
Small Charged
3. What type of charge do the fragments of DNA have?
Slightly Negative
4. Why do scientists cover the gel with a nylon
membrane?
To have something they can handle and manipulate.
5. What special property of the probes allows scientists
to detect where the DNA fragments are located?
The probes are Radio-actively Labeled
6. Who committed this crime? HONEY
Part 3 : Replication/Transcription/Translation
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/dna/#
1. Give one example of a cell using DNA to make a
proteins or new cells. Cells building enzymes, hair,
fingernails, blood proteins, muscle repair, and growth.
2. Where in the cell do replication and transcription
take place?
In the NUCLEUS
3. Where in the cell does translation take place?
In the cytoplasm at Ribosomes
4. After translation has taken place, list the names of the
three amino acids that this strand of DNA coded for.
(In their correct order)
METHIONINE
GLYCINE
SERINE