Why deoxyribose for DNA and ribose for RNA?

Question

Why is DNA made out of deoxyribose and RNA made of ribose? Why can't they both use ribose or deoxyribose? I think that the deoxyribose gives an advantage in storing genes, the job of DNA and ribose is better dealt with outside the nucleus...but why?

Answer 1

Nice question which leads to the fundamentals of DNA and RNA.

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is the core of life in Earth, every known living organism is using DNA as their genetic backbone. DNA is so precious and vital to eukaryotes that its kept packaged in cell nucleus, its being copied but never removed because it never leaves the safety of nucleus. DNA directs all cell activity by delegating it to RNA. RNA (Ribonucleic acid ) have varied sort of biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes. RNA carries messages out of the cell nucleus to cytoplasm.

The structure of RNA nucleotides is very similar to that of DNA nucleotides, with the main difference being that the ribose sugar backbone in RNA has a hydroxyl (-OH) group that DNA does not. This gives DNA its name: DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. Another minor difference is that DNA uses the base thymine (T) in place of uracil (U). Despite great structural similarities, DNA and RNA play very different roles from one another in modern cells.

http://exploringorigins.org/rna.html

RNA has three main characteristics that differs it from DNA

• RNA is very unstable and decomposes rapidly.
• RNA contains Uracil in place of Thymine
• RNA is almost always single stranded.

DNA and RNA use a ribose sugar as a main element of their chemical structures, ribose sugar used in DNA is deoxyribose, While RNA uses unmodified ribose sugar.

Ribose and Deoxyribose

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From the fig above we can see that the principal difference between the two molecules is the presence of OH in ribose (2' tail) and absence in deoxyribose. There is a difference in one Oxygen atom as the name stands de-oxy ribose. Both Ribose and deoxyribose have an Oxygen(O) atom and a Hydrogen (H) atom (an OH group) at their 3' sites. The OH groups are very reactive in nature, so the 3' OH tail is required for phosphodiester bonds to form between nucleotides in both ribose and deoxyribose atoms.

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Answer

DNA is such an important molecule so it must be protected from decomposition and further reactions. The absence of one Oxygen is the key for extending DNA's longevity. When the 2' Oxygen is absent in deoxyribose, the sugar molecule is less likely to get involved in chemical reactions( the aggressive nature of Oxygen in chemical reactions are famous). So by removing the Oxygen from deoxyribose molecule, DNA avoids being broken down. In an RNA's point of view the Oxygen is helpful, unlike DNA, RNA is a short-term tool used by the cell to send messages and manufacture proteins as a part of gene expression. Simply speaking mRNA (Messenger RNA) has the duties of turning genes ON and OFF, when a gene needed to be put ON mRNA is made and to keep it OFF the mRNA is removed. So the OH group in 2' is used to decompose the RNA quickly thereby making those affected genes in OFF state.

Finally, the ribose sugar is placed in RNA for easily decomposing it and DNA uses deoxyribose sugar for longevity.

References

Flesh and Bones of Metabolism - Marek H. Dominiczak

Genetics For Dummies - Tara Rodden Robinson

Answer 2

Addition to Jvrek's answer based on the comments. Most RNA degradation mechanisms catalysed by different RNAses (RNAse-A and RNAse-S, for example), involve the 2'-OH. Therefore the repertoire of RNAses is selective towards RNA and not DNA because of the 2'-OH.

       

                     

Answer 3

Why DNA for the genetic material?

I think the correct and sufficient answer to this is the one so frequently repeated that it is difficult to find the original source. For example, G.F.Joyce wrote in a 2002 Nature review article:

The primary advantage of DNA over RNA as a genetic material is the greater chemical stability of DNA, allowing much larger genomes based on DNA.

To expand, RNA is unsuitable for large genomes because the 2'-OH of ribose (obviously absent from the 2'-dexoyribose of DNA) renders the phosphodiester bond susceptible to alkaline hydrolysis (see illustration adapted from Wikipedia article).

This will occur slowly at pH 7.6, but at a rate calculated to be sufficient to degrade a 1000 nucleotide RNA in about 70 days. This explains why all RNA viruses have small genomes (and why some, like flu virus, are segmented).

Why RNA for other informational functions?

There are a variety of ad hoc arguments here, but none as conclusive as the argument above for DNA. This is partly because there are a variety of functions RNA performs — one can make different arguments for each. Before making a point that I don’t think has been made above, I would say that RNA most likely preceeded DNA (whether or not one believes it preceeded protein) and that there would have had to be a selective advantage for organisms to switch from RNA to DNA. One can see that for the genome, but not for the other functions.

This argument also applies catalysis, but in a slightly different way. If RNA enzymes (ribozymes) preceeded protein enzymes, most ribozymes have been dumped because protein enzymes are more efficient and organisms which developed them were at an advantage. Those that are left are so intimately involved with RNA that replacement by proteins would have been difficult. So answers to this question about DNA not being able to replace catalytic RNA, though correct, seem to me peripheral the general question of RNA function.

The central function of RNA is surely in protein synthesis — mRNA, rRNA, tRNA. One thing that these perhaps have in common is a three-dimensional structure that differs from an extended double helix. (Yes mRNA has tertiary structure too.) RNA lends itself more readily to such structures because the chemical difference between ribose and deoxyribose leads to a different helical structure (A-helix) from that of DNA (B-helix). To quote Fohrer et al.:

The presence of the ribose 2'-hydroxyl group in RNA engenders a preference for the C3'-endo puckering, thereby providing the decisive factor for the differences in conformation, hydration and thermodynamic stability between canonical RNA and DNA helices.

(Image from Niel Henriksen showing C3'- and C2'-endo pucker of ribose. C2'-endo pucker is found in deoxyribose in the B-DNA helix.)

The RNA A-helix involves less stringent base-pairing than the DNA B-helix (hence the greater error frequency in replicating RNA virus genomes), which is also reflected in non-WC base-pairing in rRNA and tRNA. (The presence of U in RNA, rather than T in DNA should also be mentioned — GU base-pairs are found frequently in rRNA.)