How does RNA know which way is up?

1

I have a copy of the calorie counts, and they are great. But I don’t know how to interpret UG/GU versus GU/UG. As far as I know, the molecules don’t have an up down sense of themselves.

2

RNA does, in fact, have an “up” and a “down”, called 5’ and 3’ based on which way the sugars are pointing. see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directio…

If you look really closely (or zoom in), there are little arrows connecting the dots. The arrows point from the 5’ to the 3’ end of the RNA, since the sugars themselves are not represented on the screen.

3

In addition to what alan.robot has said, you can turn on nucleotide numbering in EteRNA by going to game settings (the gear icon at the bottom of the game screen) and choosing “nucleotide numbering”. The numbers start at the 5’ end and go to the 3’ end.

5

I guess I went through the tutorials too quickly. I didn’t realize this was available. Thank you so much.

7

As I said above, I didn’t realize this was available. Thank you so much.