Nucleic Acid Nucleic acids allow organisms to transfer genetic information from one generation to the next.

Nucleic acid : polynucleotide. Nucleotide : nucleoside + phosphate Nucleoside : base and sugar
nucleotides, are made up of three parts: (a) Phosphate (b) Nitrogene base (c) Sugar Structure of nucleic acid

L` The phosphate group joins the to the 5th Carbon. The bases are attached to the 1st Carbon Bases Purine : Adenine and Guanine Pyrimidine : Cytosine, Thymine , Uracil Adenine Uracil Guanine Thymine Cytosine

Adenine pairs with Thymine -----> two hydrogen bonds Guanine pairs with Cytosine -----> three hydrogen bonds Sugar Ribose is a sugar, like glucose, but with only five carbon atoms in its molecule

Deoxyribose is almost the same as RNA but lacks one oxygen atom

Phosphate Phosphate groups attached to the carbon 5 with phosphoester bonds. There are two types of nucleotide : DNA RNA

Structural Comparison of DNA & RNA DNA Structur e # of strands Sugar N-bases Double helix RNA Linear

Deoxyribose A, T, G, C

Ribose A, U, G, C