• Nucleaic acid sequence

     

    Nucleotides

     

    Nucleic acids consist of a chain of linked units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of three subunits: a phosphate group and a sugar (ribose in the case of RNA, deoxyribose in DNA) make up the backbone of the nucleic acid strand, and attached to the sugar is one of a set of nucleobases.

    DNA molecule strand showing double helix structure with deoxyribose and nucleobases.

    DNA molecule strand showing the double helix structure

    Biological significance

    In biological systems, nucleic acids () contain information which is used by a living cell to construct specific proteins. The sequence of nucleobases on a nucleaic acid strand is translated by cell machinery into a sequence of amino acids making up a protein strand.

    The different nucleobases that make up DNA are

    • Adenine
    • Cytosine
    • Guanine
    • Thymine
DNA molecule strand showing the double helix structure
Last Modified on August 30, 2017