Nucleic acids

Nucleic acids are biopolymers, or large biomolecules, essential for all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main types of nucleic acids are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA).

Structure

Nucleic acids are generally very large molecules. Indeed, DNA molecules are probably the largest individual molecules known. Well-studied biological nucleic acid molecules range in size from 21 nucleotides (small interfering RNA) to large chromosomes.

Function

Nucleic acids function in encoding, transmitting and expressing genetic information. In DNA, the information is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). In RNA, uracil (U) is used in place of thymine.

Types

There are two types of nucleic acids which are polymers found in all living cells.

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)

DNA is a long polymer made from repeating units called nucleotides, each of which is usually symbolized by a single letter: either A, T, C, or G.

Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)

RNA is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation, and expression of genes.

See also

• Nucleotide
• DNA replication
• RNA world hypothesis
• Central dogma of molecular biology

References

Nucleic acids Resources
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