What is the full form of RNA
RNA: Ribonucleic Acid
RNA stands for Ribonucleic Acid. It is one of the major biological macromolecules that is essential for all known forms of life. It performs various important biological roles related to protein synthesis such as transcription, decoding, regulation and expression of genes.
Structure of RNA
It is a single stranded molecule composed of ribonucleotides. Like DNA, It has three components:
- A Nitrogenous Base: It can be adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) or uracil (U).
- A Five-Carbon Sugar: It is ribose.
- A Phosphate Group: It is attached to the 3′ position of one ribose and 5′ position of the next ribose.
The nucleotides of RNA are joined to one another through covalent bonds that exist between the phosphate of one molecule and sugar of another molecule. This linkage between nucleotides is called phosphodiester linkage or bond.
RNA is not always linear; it can fold to form a complex three dimensional structure called hairpin loops. In this structure, nitrogenous bases bind to one another, i.e. Adenine pairs with uracil (A-U) and guanine pairs with cytosine (G-C). Hairpin loops are commonly found in messenger (mRNA) and transfer RNA (tRNA).
Types of RNA
There are mainly three types of RNA molecule which are as follows:
Messenger RNA (m RNA): It plays an important role in DNA transcription; a process in which m RNA is transcribed from one strand of DNA, so its base sequence is complementary to DNA template strand. It allows it to carry the genetic information from the DNA in the form of series of three-base code which specifies a particular amino acid.
Transfer RNA (t RNA): It is the smallest of the three types of RNA molecules. It usually has 74 to 95 nucleotide residues. It transfers the amino acids from cytoplasm to the protein synthesizing machinery, so it is called t RNA.
Ribosomal RNA (r RNA): It constitutes around 85% of the total RNA of the cell. It plays an important role in protein synthesis as it interacts with mRNA and tRNA at various stages of translation (protein synthesis).