Can somebody explain this to me in my anatomy class the teacher?

Question

said something about the letters of DNA TO RNA being reversed or backwards I didn't get it 10 points to anybody immediately

Answer 1

I'm guessing that your teacher was talking about codons and anticodons.

The nucleotides in your DNA (A, T, G, and C) will associate in a specific way: A only binds T, and C only binds G.
So a DNA sequence with the nucleotides AATCGC will match another strand with the sequence TTAGCG. Since RNA contains U instead of T, the matching RNA sequence would be UUAGCG.

Your mRNA has 3-nucleotide "words" called codons that each code for a specific amino acid when being translated into proteins.
The specific sequence of these codons is determined by the opposing sequence of nucleotides on your DNA (the "anticodon"). So they are sort of "opposites" of each other.

This is also complicated by the fact that when two DNA strands match-up, one of them (the "antisense strand", containing the anticodons) runs the right way, but the other strand (the "sense strand", which matches the antisense strand, but does not by itself code for anything) runs in an antiparallel direction.
In other words, the not only are the nucleotide sequences "opposite" (but complementary), but the direction the strands run in (called either 3'-to-5' or 5'-to-3') is opposite.

Answer 2

When RNA is created from DNA it is creating a complimentary half strand. In other words in the DNA base pair is Guanine then RNA counter would be Cytosine. Complimentary may be a better word then reverse or backwards. Keep in mind the Uracil substitution in RNA also.

Answer 3

Try these sites

http://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/notebook/courses/guide/trans.htm
http://www.johnkyrk.com/DNAtranscription.html

Good luck!