What if a DNA molecule is compared to a spiral staircase what parts make up the steps?

Answer 1

pairs of nitrogen bases

Answer 2

Two strands of DNA intertwined together and twisted to form a double helix.

The sugar phosporous backbone is like the side of the stairs and the nucleotide bases are like the steps of the stairs.

Answer 3

1) "The ring form of ribose is a component of ribonucleic acid (RNA). Deoxyribose, which is missing an oxygen at position 2, is a component of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In nucleic acids, the hydroxyl group attached to carbon number 1 is replaced with nucleotide bases."

Source and further information:

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/carbohydrates.html

2) "Genetic material in earthly life often contains poly 5′-3′, 2′-deoxyribose nucleotides, in structures called chromosomes, where each monomer is one of the nucleotides deoxy- adenine, thymine, guanine or cytosine. This material is commonly called deoxyribonucleic acid, or simply DNA for short.

DNA in chromosomes forms very long helical structures containing two molecules with the backbones running in opposite directions on the outside of the helix and held together by hydrogen bonds between complementary nucleotide bases lying between the helical backbones. The lack of the 2′ hydroxyl group in DNA appears to allow the backbone the flexibility to assume the full conformation of the long double-helix, which involves not only the basic helix, but additional coiling necessary to fit these very long molecules into the very small volume of a cell nucleus.

In contrast, very similar molecules, containing ribose instead of deoxyribose, and known generically as RNA, are known to form only relatively short double-helical complementary base paired structures. These are well known, for instance, in ribosomal RNA molecules and in transfer RNA (tRNA), where so-called hairpin structures from palindromic sequences within one molecule."

Source and further information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deoxyribose Hopes this helps!!!

Answer 4

The sides of the staircase is akin to the sugar carbon backbone of the DNA, where the different deoxyribonucleotides are bonded to each other via phosphodiester bonds.

The steps refer to the different nitrogenous bases, Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine. Via complementary base pairing, A pairs with T and C pairs with G, all held together by hydrogen bonding between the complementary nitrogenous bases.

Answer 5

A spiral staircase is actually a very good analogy for DNA. The railings are like the chains of Deoxyribose (the type of sugar that gives DNA its name) that give the DNA molecule its shape. The steps in the staircase would represent the base pairs (made up of Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, and Cytosine) that contain the genetic information.

Answer 6

Helix (K)