| DNA |
RNA |
| Usual genetic material |
Genetic material of some viruses |
| Usually double stranded |
Mostly single stranded (sometimes may de double stranded) |
| Pentose sugar is deoxyribose |
Pentose sugar is ribose |
| The nitrogen bases present are adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine |
Thymine is replaced by uracil |
| Adenine pairs with thymine and guanine pairs with cytosine |
Adenine pairs with uracil and guanine with cytosine |
| Pairing of bases is throughout the length of molecule |
Pairing of bases is only in the helical region |
| Fewer uncommon bases |
More uncommon bases |
| Most of the DNA is found on the chromosome, some also found in cytoplasm |
mRNA is formed on the chromosome and found in nucleolus and cytoplasm, rRNA and tRNA also formed on the chromosome and found in cytoplasm. |
| Replicate and transcribe |
Do not replicate and transcribe (in certain viruses, RNA synthesize RNA chain) |
| Large number of nucleotides (4.3 million) |
Fewer nucleotides (up to 12000) |
| Function – To carry genetic message |
Function – To synthesize proteins using information coded on DNA |
