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DNA and ribonucleic acid (RNA) are nucleic acids. Alongside proteins, lipids and complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides), nucleic acids are one of the four major types of macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life. The two DNA strands are known as polynucleotides as they are composed of simpler monomeric units called nucleotides.
The basic component of biological nucleic acids is the nucleotide, each of which contains a pentose sugar (ribose or deoxyribose), a phosphate group, and a nucleobase. [16] Nucleic acids are also generated within the laboratory, through the use of enzymes [17] (DNA and RNA polymerases) and by solid-phase chemical synthesis.
Nucleic acids are formed when nucleotides come together through phosphodiester linkages between the 5' and 3' carbon atoms. [3] A nucleic acid sequence is the order of nucleotides within a DNA (GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule that is determined by a series of letters.
Nucleotide bases [1] (also nucleobases, nitrogenous bases) are nitrogen-containing biological compounds that form nucleosides, which, in turn, are components of nucleotides, with all of these monomers constituting the basic building blocks of nucleic acids.
This nucleotide contains the five-carbon sugar deoxyribose (at center), a nucleobase called adenine (upper right), and one phosphate group (left). The deoxyribose sugar joined only to the nitrogenous base forms a Deoxyribonucleoside called deoxyadenosine, whereas the whole structure along with the phosphate group is a nucleotide, a constituent of DNA with the name deoxyadenosine monophosphate.
Although some fundamental facts were known about nucleic acids due to these early discoveries, its structure and function remained a mystery. It wasn't until the discovery of nucleotides in 1919 by Phoebus Levene , a Russian-Lithuanian biochemist that re-opened the gates of the DNA discovery.
L-Ribose Fischer Projection. Ribose is a simple sugar and carbohydrate with molecular formula C 5 H 10 O 5 and the linear-form composition H−(C=O)−(CHOH) 4 −H. The naturally occurring form, d-ribose, is a component of the ribonucleotides from which RNA is built, and so this compound is necessary for coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes.
The primary structure of a biopolymer is the exact specification of its atomic composition and the chemical bonds connecting those atoms (including stereochemistry).For a typical unbranched, un-crosslinked biopolymer (such as a molecule of a typical intracellular protein, or of DNA or RNA), the primary structure is equivalent to specifying the sequence of its monomeric subunits, such as amino ...