Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: Sam Brown on 23/10/2018 10:49:21

Title: How was DNA named?
Post by: Sam Brown on 23/10/2018 10:49:21

Shafiqullah has asked:

"Why do we not use the letter A,B,C and D, instead of A,C,G and T, for DNA?"

Can anyone help answer?

Title: Re: How was DNA named?
Post by: chiralSPO on 23/10/2018 12:49:02

A, C, G, and T are abbreviations for the names of the molecules. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleoside

Title: Re: How was DNA named?
Post by: evan_au on 23/10/2018 21:56:28

The bases of RNA are similar to DNA, except RNA contains Uracil (U) in place of Thymine (T).

The movie GATTACA managed to construct an almost-pronounceable name from the names of the DNA bases. It is set in a dystopian society where DNA sequencing is extremely cheap and readily available.
See: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/

Title: Re: How was DNA named?
Post by: AnnaSmith on 08/11/2018 09:08:34

People above gave good answers, so thanks!