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3|P a g e
 4

INDEX
1. Introduction ...05
2. Nitrogenous Bases ...06
a. Nucleoside ...07
b. Nucleotide ...07
3. Structure of DNA ...08
4. Plant Cell ...10
a. Cell Wall ...10
b. Cell Membrane ...10
c. Lipid Bilayer ...11
5. Experiment: DNA extraction ...12
from a fruit
a. Objective ...12
b. Materials required ...12
c. Procedure ...13
d. Inference ...14
e. Test for phosphorous ...14
6. Genetic Material ...15
7. Bibliography ...16
 5

What is a DNA?

Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a molecule that contains the

instructions an organism needs to develop, live and reproduce.
These instructions are found inside every cell, and are passed
down from parents to their children. They are classified under the
category of poly-nucleotides. It essentially contains a pentose
sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base (nitrogen
containing heterocyclic compounds).

DNA was first observed by a German biochemist named

Frederich Miescher in 1869. But for many years, researchers did
not realize the importance of this molecule. It was not until 1953
that James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind
Franklin figured out the structure of DNA — a double helix —
which they realized could carry biological information.

Within eukaryotic cells, DNA is organized into long structures

called chromosomes. Before typical cell division, these
chromosomes are duplicated in the process of DNA replication,
providing a complete set of chromosomes for each daughter
cell. Eukaryotic organisms (animals, plants, fungiand protists)
store most of their DNA inside the cell nucleus as nuclear DNA.

Nucleotides are attached together to form two long strands that

spiral to create a structure called a double helix. DNA contains
our unique genetic code and is used for making proteins in our
body.
 6

NITROGENOUS BASES

A nitrogenous base, or nitrogen-containing base, is an organic

molecule with a nitrogen atom that has the chemical properties of
a base. The main biological function of a nitrogenous base is to
bond nucleic acids together. A nitrogenous base owes its basic
properties to the lone pair of electrons of a nitrogen atom.

Nitrogenous bases are typically classified as the derivatives of

two parent compounds, pyrimidine and purine. They are non-polar
and due to their aromaticity, planar. Both pyrimidines and purines
resemble pyridine and are thus weak bases and relatively
unreactive towards electrophilic aromatic substitution.
Nitrogenous bases are divided into two categories,
purines and pyrimidines. There are three pyrimidines
cytosine, thymine, and uracil and two purines adenine and
guanine, as shown in the figure below.
 7

Nucleoside
A unit formed by the attachment of base to 1’ position of sugar is
called a nucleoside. A nucleoside consists simply of
a nucleobase and a five-carbon
sugar (deoxyribose).
In a nucleoside, the anomeric
carbon is linked through a
glycosidic bond to the N9 of
a purine. The sugar carbons are
numbered as 1’, 2’, 3’, 4’ and 5’
to distinguish these from the
bases.

Nucleotide
When a nucleoside is linked to phosphoric acid at the 5’ position
of sugar moiety we get a
nucleotide. Nucleotides are the
building blocks of nucleic acids;
they are composed of three sub
unit molecules: a nitrogenous
base (also known
as nucleobase), a five-carbon
sugar (ribose or deoxyribose),
and at least one phosphate
group.

.
 8

Structure of DNA

The DNA is a double helical structure formed by two anti-parallel

strands of polynucleotides. The sugar phosphate chain forms the
back bone with the bases projecting inside.
In a DNA molecule, a purine
is always attached to a
pyrimidine. Adenine forms a
base pair with thymine using
2 hydrogen bonds, whereas
guanine forms a base pair
with cytosine by 3 hydrogen
bonds.
The two strands are anti-
parallel in the sense that they
have opposite polarities 3’ at
the –OH group end at 5’ at
the phosphate group end.

The diameter of DNA is

20nm or 20 A. Adjacent
bases are separated 0.34 nm
or by 3.4 A along the axis.
The length of a complete turn of helix is 3.4 nm or 34 A i.e. there
are 10bp per turn. (B- DNA-Watson rick DNA).
9
 10

Plant cell

Cell wall:-
It is made up of cellulose, a polymer of many glucose units and is
essentially present in almost all the plant cell walls.

Cell membrane:-
Phospholipids make up the basic structure of a cell membrane. A
single phospholipid molecule has two different ends: a head and a
tail. The head end contains a phosphate group and is hydrophilic.
This means that it likes or is attracted to water molecules.

The tail end is made up of two strings of hydrogen and carbon

atoms called fatty acid chains. These chains are hydrophobic, or
do not like to mingle with water molecules. This is just like what
happens when you pour vegetable oil in water. The vegetable oil
will not mix with the water.

This arrangement of phospholipid molecules makes up the lipid

bilayer.
 11

Lipid Bilayer:-
The phospholipids of a cell membrane are arranged in a double
layer called the lipid bilayer. The hydrophilic phosphate heads are
always arranged so that they are near water. Watery fluids are
found both inside a cell (intracellular fluid) and outside a cell
(extracellular fluid). The hydrophobic tails of membrane
phospholipids are organized in a manner that keeps them away
from water.
The arrangement of the lipid bilayer is similar to that of micelles.

Lipid
Bilayer

Micelle
 12

DNA EXTRACTION FROM A

FRUIT

Objective:-
To check the contents of a DNA by extraction of it from a banana

MATERIALS REQUIRED:-
1. Banana
2. 250ml beaker
3. 100ml beaker
4. Strainer
5. Zipper lock bag
6. Chilled ethanol
7. Soap solution
8. Sodium chloride
9. Water
 13

Procedure:-

1. Take a beaker and add 90ml of water into it.

2. Add 10ml of dish soap into the beaker.
3. Add about 2g of NaCl and stir the mixture well until the
salt dissolves.
4. Take a ripe fruit of banana in a zipper lock bag and crush
the banana into a fine paste.
5. Add in the soap mixture into
the bag and mix it well with
the banana pulp.
6. Pour the resulting mixture
into the beaker by using a
strain.
7. Crush the pulp with a spoon
over the strain forcing even
more of the mixture into the
container.
8. Now pour this mixture into a smaller beaker through a
strain so that the fluid fills half the container (50ml). This
eases the extraction of DNA.
9. Add chilled ethanol to the beaker. This causes the DNA to
precipitate as a white layer at the top.
10. Allow the mixture to settle for about 10 minutes and then
extract the DNA by using tweezers and transfer it to a
watch glass.
 14

Inference:-
1. The DNA of the cell lies within the nuclear membrane. In
order to extract the DNA from a banana the cell wall, cell
membrane and the nuclear membrane must be broken.
2. The cell walls get structurally damaged when the fruit is
crushed.
3. The cell membrane and the nuclear membrane are made
of phospholipids. The soap molecules which are present
in the form of micelles (similar in structure) displace the
layer causing it to rupture.
4. Similarly the nuclear membrane also breaks down,
causing the DNA to come out.
5. The chilled ethanol added to the final mixture causes DNA
to precipitate out as a continuous white layer.
6. The chilled ethanol also increases the yield of DNA as it
keeps the DNA from breaking down by reducing the
enzyme activity.

Test for phosphorous:-

To the given DNA sample add a few drops of
concentrated nitric acid and heat till fume
ceases. Then add ammonium molybdate.

H3PO4 +12(NH4)2MoO4 +21HNO3 →

(NH4)3PMo12O40•6H2O + 21NH4NO3 + 6H2O
A canary yellow precipitate is produced which
indicates the presence of phosphate group in
the DNA.
 15

Genetic material

DNA normally exists in our cells as a long thread like structure

called as the chromatin network.

Chromatin is a mass of genetic material composed of DNA

and proteins that condense to form chromosomes during
eukaryotic cell division. Chromatin is located in the nucleus of
our cells.

The primary function of chromatin is to compress the DNA into a

compact unit that will be less voluminous and can fit within the
nucleus. Chromatin consists of complexes of small proteins
known as histones and DNA.

During meiosis or mitosis in eukaryotes, DNA is condensed from

chromatin to form chromosomes. Humans normally have 23 pairs
of chromosomes. There are 22 pairs of autosomes and 1 pair of
sex chromosome.

Males are characterised by the XY chromosomes and females

have the XX chromosome.
 16

BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://nile.red

https://www.nature.com

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

https://en.wikipedia.org

https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/

https://www.livescience.com