What does hydrogen bonding have to do with RNA?

Question

I know for DNA the base pairs are held together by hydrogen bonds in each strand, but RNA is single stranded, so how does that work? Could you give me a little background info on the difference in their function? I know DNA codes for building a cell's other molecules and RNA copies DNA for making proteins, but could you explain that?

Answer 1

An enzyme breaks the hydrogen bond in the section of DNA that is required. Then, mRNA (messenger RNA) is created because mRNA's base pairs match up the now single stranded DNA (because it was unzipped by the enzyme breaking the hydrogen bond). The mRNA then travels to a ribosome, which interprets the information on the mRNA (3 base pairs code for an amino acid), and constructs the protein by the instructions of the mRNA. This is done by tRNA (transfer RNA) grabbing amino acids per instruction of the mRNA and place them in order on an amino acid chain on the ribosome. When the chain is complete, the ribosome lets the amino acid chain go and the chain folds and makes a protein.