ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the molecular biology of the nucleic acids, DNA and RNA. As we have stressed in earlier chapters, all biological macromolecules have natural, complex 3-D structures in which the interatomic binding energy is minimized; DNA, RNA, and proteins are no exception. Their 3D molecular structures, including chirality, are necessary for intermolecular specicity and their biochemical and physiological activity. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is unique in that it appears in all cells today (Prokaryotes, Archaeans, Eukaryotes) and is used as a linear programming code for protein and RNA synthesis and control of gene expression. Protein-coding segments of DNA are called genes; they are also called exons.
