• Question: What does dna stand for?

    Asked by 228brna35 to Ciarán on 21 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Ciarán O'Brien

      Ciarán O'Brien answered on 21 Nov 2014:

      DNA stands for Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid.

      The “Deoxyribo” bit is about the backbone of the molecule, which is a sugar called ribose that has lost an oxygen atom, hence “deoxy”.

      the “nucleic” bit is about what’s attached to the deoxyribose backbone: One of 4 molecules called nucleotides, Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine or Thymine. That’s what carries the genetic code, and we shorten them to A,G,C and T for short.

      And finally, it’s an acid because of the electrical charges on different parts of the molecule. It would technically eat away at metals and other substances, but it’s not very acidic at all 🙂

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