DNA Nomenclature

[Warren Gallin]

In Article <2l7ket$7j6 at mserv1.dl.ac.uk>, mjones at crc.ac.uk (Dr. M.D. Jones)
wrote:
>
[stuff deleted]

>DNA (usually) is double stranded.
>One DNA strand is identical in sequence to mRNA.  This is called the non-coding
>strand or sense strand.
>The other complementary strand is thus the coding strand or anti-sense strand.
>
>I presume this comes about from the fact that the 'coding' strand acts the
>template for the RNA polymerase to produce the mRNA.
>
>Unfortunately to my mind, I find it logically to call it the reverse.  In that
>the mRNA carries the coding information, and the DNA strand that is equivalent
>to this should be the coding strand, but this is usually refered to as the
>'non-coding'.
>
>Confusing eh :-)
[more stuff deleted]

Confusing, I agree.  I always thought that coding strand and sense strand
were synonymous.  The information being coded is for protein seqeunce, and
that information is in the sense strand.  Did I miss something in a basic
lecture?


Warren Gallin,
Department of Zoology, University of Alberta
wgallin at gpu.srv.ualberta.ca