Wednesday, March 12, 2008

NUCLEOTIDES

NUCLEOTIDES

The nucleotides that are the building blocks of nucleic acids are formed by adding a phosphate group to a nucleoside.



Nucleotides containing ribose are known as ribonucleotides, and those containing deoxyribose are known as deoxyribonucleotides.

To summarize the structural differences between DNA and RNA:

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)

  • Sugar is deoxyribose
  • DNA is a polymer of deoxyribonucleotides
  • Bases are adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine

RNA (ribonucleic acid)

  • Sugar is ribose
  • RNA is a polymer of ribonucleotides.
  • Bases are adenine, guanine, cytosine and uracil (instead of thymine)

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