PHYC452Biophysics:Interactions
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Are there any other prokaryotes besides bacteria?
Yes! Archaea and Bacteria are the two domains of prokaryotes. Relevant to our in class discussion, Algae are Eukaryotes, whereas cyanobacteria are bacteria, but confusingly are commonly called blue-green algae.
Why Uracil in RNA instead of Thymine?
Here is a link to one explanation: Uracil in RNA
and another: Uracil in RNA.
The short answer: Thymine takes more energy to make (and is made from Uracil) but has several advantages in DNA, where mutations cannot be tolerated. Urasil can base pair with other bases, including itself. Cytosine can degrade into a Uracil and therefore its best if all Uracil in DNA is treated as a error that needs to be fixed.
