Asked by Connor Davidson ^(5,541)
Connor Davidson 23 days 6 hours ago. (More question by this person)

What is the difference between DNA and RNA?

DNA and RNA are quite different and I wonder if someone can say how. Or if you want to be very clever why.

Answer from Robert Ogden ⁽²²⁷⁾ 23 days 4 hours ago. More questions answered by this person)
How they are different is sort of complex.

1. Composition (of nucleotides)

DNA - a.) deoxyribose [sugar] b.) phosphate group c.) base (containing nitrogen)

RNA - a.) ribose b.) & c.) are the same as in DNA

2. Structure

DNA - double helix ("twisted ladder")

RNA - single strand ("half a ladder cut from top to bottom thru the rungs"); also one of its bases (uracil) is different from DNA's (thymine).

3. Function

DNA - it's the master copy of the cell's master plan; DNA makes a working copy of itself called RNA.

RNA - it's the working copy of orders sent to ribosomes (protein factories) in our cells and acts there as a template for production of a needed protein.

4. Reproducing

DNA - copies itself totally (before the cell divides so each new cell has a copy) in a process called replication.

RNA - DNA copies the needed portion of itself (RNA) to send to the ribosomes in a process called transcription (not to be confused with "translation," the process the ribosomes use to make proteins).

Why they are different is simple; God made them that way. There had to be a hand behind their complex design.

Comment from Connor Davidson ^(5,541) 22 days 7 hours ago.
All of this is fantastic apart from the last sentence - God made them that way is not a scientific answer. Otherwise your spot on.

Comment from Robert Ogden ⁽²²⁷⁾ 22 days 6 hours ago.
I inferred that the "how" should be scientifically answered but not necessarily the "clever why."


Your view that including God makes an answer unscientific defaults to a naturalistic, materialistic, and humanistic life view from which evolution spawns. Yet there are evolutionists...even here on SW...that deny God in one breath while espousing the possibility of unseen aliens in the next.


True science considers the evidence and draws conclusions without preconceived ideas or bias.

Comment from Paul Schroeder ^(2,366) 15 days 8 hours ago.
Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA, and Nobel Prize winner published a book which subscribed to the theory of intelligent design, that our universe was not simply the result of a series of chemical accidents. He states,



“Life did not evolve first on Earth, a highly advanced civilization became threatened so they devised a way to pass on their existence. They genetically-modified their DNA and sent it out from their planet on bacteria or meteorites with the hope that it would collide with another planet. It did, and that's why we're here." The DNA molecule is the most efficient information storage system in the entire universe. The immensity of complex, coded and precisely sequenced information is absolutely staggering. The DNA evidence speaks of intelligent, information-bearing design. Complex DNA coding would have been necessary for even the hypothetical first ‘so-called’ simple cell(s). Our DNA was encoded with messages from that other civilization. They programmed the molecules so that when we reached a certain level of intelligence, we would be able to access their information, and they could therefore "teach" us about ourselves, and how to progress. For life to form by chance is mathematically virtually impossible.”

Comment from Connor Davidson ^(5,541) 3 days 11 hours ago.
You say: "True science considers the evidence and draws conclusions without preconceived ideas or bias."

Thus, by your own quotation, Scientists should not consider God at the moment. This is because of the lack of evidence. However, if all the evidence in the world points to the existence of god then any good scientist should include god.

Yet, a good scientist NEVER back off a why question by playing a god card. That is not science that is faith.

Answer from Gregory Lewis ^(1,502)
Gregory Lewis 23 days 2 hours ago. More questions answered by this person)
In POE (Plain Old English), DNA is the master blueprint, which synthesizes Ribo Nucleic Acid (RNA), so that it can leave the cell's nucleus and synthesize proteins from amino acids:


"When a gene (a segment of DNA) is active, a copy of the information is made onto a molecule of messenger-RNA. The m-RNA leaves the nucleus and attaches to a ribosome, where the protein is produced." - Neil R. Carlson (2007), Physiology of Behavior

Why they are different is one of the many unanswered mysteries. But one thing is certain, the cell would not function without them..


- G

Answer from Ben Morrish ^(7,929)
Ben Morrish 22 days 18 hours ago. More questions answered by this person)
RNA is simpler than DNA, with a single-strand structure rather than the double-stranded double-helix structure of DNA.

Both share the ability to store information. RNA molecules can have a much larger number of bases than DNA (which generally has just 4).

Because of this, RNA can form a far greater variety of shapes and this allows it to perform a wider range of functions than DNA - as well as storing information encoded in the repeating pattern of bases, RNA can also act as a chemical catalyst (enzyme) in many chemical reactions.

RNA essentially does the information storing job that DNA does, but not as well, and the catalyst / structure job that protein does, but not as well.... a kind of chemical "jack of all trades".

In DNA-based life, RNA performs an essential role as the "messenger" that takes the information from the DNA and passes it to the ribosomes so that proteins can be constructed (following the "recipe" given by the DNA)...and its proteins that are used to build the structures of our bodies.

Some simple viruses (virii) don't have DNA - they just have RNA.

There's no firm consensus yet, but an increasingly popular and well supported idea is that today's world of (mostly) DNA-based life forms evolved from a world where simpler RNA was the primary genetic material.

RNA-based life can exist without DNA, but DNA-based life needs RNA in order to function.

Answer from Cori Carl ⁽⁰⁾ 22 days 5 hours ago. More questions answered by this person)
A complete description of both is at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcription_(genetics) , but short:

the main difference between DNA and RNA is the sugar present in the molecules. While the sugar present in a RNA molecule is ribose, the sugar present in a molecule of DNA is deoxyribose. Deoxyribose is the same as ribose, except that the former has one more OH.

DNA does not usually exist as a single molecule, but instead as a tightly-associated pair of molecules. These two long strands entwine like vines, in the shape of a double helix. This arrangement of DNA strands is called antiparallel. The asymmetric ends of DNA strands are referred to as the 5' (five prime) and 3' (three prime) ends. One of the major differences between DNA and RNA is the sugar, with 2-deoxyribose being replaced by the alternative pentose sugar ribose in RNA. The four bases found in DNA are adenine (abbreviated A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). A fifth pyrimidine base, called uracil (U), usually takes the place of thymine in RNA and differs from thymine by lacking a methyl group on its ring.

Answer from Marty Brill ⁽⁰⁾ 20 days 4 hours ago. More questions answered by this person)
The first letter.

Comment from Connor Davidson ^(5,541) 3 days 11 hours ago.
Ha, I had not thought of that.

Answer from Marijo Phelps ^(2,847)
Marijo Phelps 20 days 3 hours ago. More questions answered by this person)
DNA is desoxynucleaic acid and RNA is ribonucleaic acid (hope you aren't counting spelling here - anatomy and physiology was a LONG way back)

Answer from Paul Schroeder ^(2,366) 15 days 8 hours ago. More questions answered by this person)
Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA, and Nobel Prize winner published a book which subscribed to the theory of intelligent design, that our universe was not simply the result of a series of chemical accidents. He states;

“Life did not evolve first on Earth, a highly advanced civilization became threatened so they devised a way to pass on their existence.

They genetically-modified their DNA and sent it out from their planet on bacteria or meteorites with the hope that it would collide with another planet. It did, and that's why we're here."

The DNA molecule is the most efficient information storage system in the entire universe. The immensity of complex, coded and precisely sequenced information is absolutely staggering. The DNA evidence speaks of intelligent, information-bearing design.

Complex DNA coding would have been necessary for even the hypothetical first ‘so-called’ simple cell(s). Our DNA was encoded with messages from that other civilization.

They programmed the molecules so that when we reached a certain level of intelligence, we would be able to access their information, and they could therefore "teach" us about ourselves, and how to progress.

For life to form by chance is mathematically virtually impossible.”

Comment from Ben Morrish ^(7,929) 15 days 6 hours ago.
Frances Crick backed away from the idea that intelligent design lay behind the development of earth life later on in his career, when he realised one of his assumptions (that the first replicators involved protein, which is too complex to have come about by chance) was false.

Furthermore, the "intelligent design" he spoke of doesn't have any explanatory power - the alien "intelligent designers" that he suggested "seeded" Earth would have had complex DNA themselves (which they supposedly modified and sent here, suggesting their DNA was, even before they modified it, at least as complex as ours).

If they could have come about from chance beginnings then we could have done too, and that undermines the whole reason he postulated the alien "intelligent designers" in the first place!

The development of the cell was the result of long evolution from simpler replicators.... the first cell is not the beginning of life, just an early (and massively important) milestone along the path of life's evolution.