Nucleic Acid Notes

Nucleic acid determines the primary structure of a protein

• monomers - nucleotides with three parts; a phosphate group, a five-carbon sugar molecule, and a nitrogen base

  • deoxyribose in DNA, ribose in RNA

Nucleic Acid differs in 5 nucleotides

• Purines (double rings)

  • adenine

  • guanine

• Pyrimidines (singe ring)

  • cytosine

  • thymine - DNA only

  • uracil - RNA only

A purine will always bond with a pyrimidine

• adenine = thymine in DNA

• adenine = uracil in RNA

• cytosine ≡ guanine