Talk:5′ end

Latest comment: 8 months ago by Darimmidar in topic self contradicting definition

self contradicting definition

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What we have here now seems to me quite wrong: "5′ end (plural 5′ ends) (biochemistry, genetics) A nucleic acid strand which terminates at the chemical group attached to the fifth carbon in the sugar ring" .

So it suggests that a DNA end is actually a strand which does not make any sense - a strand (if it is linear not a circle) contains both ends, 5' and 3'.The end is like the name implies, just the edge not the entire strand. Maybe we could also say that both ends are nucleotides - 5' the one which can bind some other nucleotide through the phosphate group that is already attached to the fifth atom of its deoxyribose, 3' the one which cannot use the phosphate group at the fifth atom of its deoxyribose, as it is already involved in binding the preceding nucleotide, but it has got a free OH group at the third C atom of its deoxyribose and it can accept at this place the phosphate group of potential next nucleotide. Darimmidar (talk) 12:25, 24 October 2023 (UTC)Reply

Darimmidar (talk) 13:33, 24 October 2023 (UTC) Actually, I am not sure that this article is needed at all, as there is also this article, by far more correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directionality_(molecular_biology)Reply

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