how will u diffrentiate dna and protein by looking only at the atoms??

Answer 1

Well, there are quite a few ways. You could look and see that DNA has A bonded to T and G bonded to C (which you could look up their exact make-up to discern them from other compounds, they are just simple nucleotides which form a chain to create what we call DNA).

You could tell by how their subunits are connected. DNA will have repetitive phosphodiester linkages (bonds between a phosphate of one nucleotide and a carbon of another) which hold it together. Proteins on the other hand will have peptide linkages (bonds between a carboxyl group of an amino acid to an amino group of another; amino acids are much like nucleotides in DNA, they form chains to create proteins).

DNA will be in a double helix, while proteins will be in all sorts of conformations (which is where they get their uses).

Since proteins are just chains of amino acids you could recognize the specific amino acids on proteins (there are only 21 and all of their structures are known. note:*Ohio State University claims to have found a 22nd* ), thus making the substance a protein and not DNA since DNA has no amino acids in it.

But assuming you could only look at the atoms like your question states and not how or what they they are connected to, you could still discern DNA from protein. DNA has phosphate since nucleotides (the things that make up DNA) are composed of a nitrogenous base, a deoxyribose sugar, and a phosphate group, while proteins have amino acids (none of which have phosphates) connected by carbons and nitrogens. So if for some reason you have the known number of atoms in two substances, but didn't known how they were connected and you were asked which one is the protein and which one is the DNA sequence. You would conclude that the one with the phosphate is indeed the DNA.

Answer 2

Proteins are made of a backbone chain: (+)H3 N -- CHR -- COO(-) These individual monomers (single segments) are called amino acids, where R = specific side chain of the particular amino acid. There are 20 different side chains (R's) (only one affects the backbone chain, Proline) that organisms use universally.

DNA is made up of nucleotides. These contain a compound called a purine or pyrimidine (A,T,C, G, U part) connected to a sugar ring (deoxyribose in your case) and a phosphate ester linkage to the next nucleotide. You should probably pick up a Biochemistry Intro text and look up DNA structures in the index. A picture will literally be worth thousands upon thousands of words (and years of research).

Answer 3

DNA is the genetic material. It functions by storing information regarding the sequence of amino acids in each of the body’s proteins. This "list" of amino acid sequences is needed when proteins are synthesized. Before protein can be synthesized, the instructions in DNA must first be copied to another type of nucleic acid called messenger RNA.
You will find a whole lot of information with images in

faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/.../ biochemi.htm

Answer 4

DNA is in the shape of a double helix and is made up of 4 bases, guanine, thymine, adenine, cytosine. It also has a phosphate backbone and is held together by hydrogen bonding between the bases. Protein is made up of 21 different amino acids connected in chains that often fold into complex structures of various shapes. They are held together by hydrogen bonding, ionic bonding, covalent bonding and van der waals forces.

Answer 5

they are the same thing it is not possible to differentiate unless the protein have some metal atom that is not part of the H, N, O, C content of dna

Answer 6

DNA is made up of repetitive chains of nucleotides (A, G, T, C) in different sequence. It is a double helix, like a twisted ladder.

Proteins come in all shapes - linear, globular, irregular. They are made from amino acids.

Answer 7

DNA is a very long double helix molecule. Ordinary protein molecules are much smaller.