Chapter 28: Nucleosides, Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids
Nucleic Acids
Nucleic acids
are polymers built of nucleotide monomers : hence they are
polynucleotides
Note that the backbone consists of alternating carbohydrate and phosphate units, coupled at the 3'- and 5'- positions.
In ribonucleic acids,
RNA
, the carbohydrate is ribose with cytosine, uracil, adenine and guanine bases.
In deoxyribonucleic acids,
DNA
, the carbohydrate is deoxyribose with cytosine, thymine, adenine and guanine bases.
