Identify the three subunits in nucleic acids?

1 Answer
Joëlle
Sep 13, 2016

A phosphate group, a sugar group and a nitrogenous base.

Explanation:

I think the question is what the three subunits of nucleotides are.

Nucleic acids (DNA, RNA) are large polymers, made out of monomer building blocks called nucleotides.

The nucleotides have a similar structure with three 'subunits':

  1. A phosphate group
  2. A sugar group : deoxyribose in DNA and ribose in RNA
  3. A nitrogenous base : adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine or uracil.

http://cahsbiology.weebly.com/nucleotides.html

In a polymer these nucleotides form a backbone with the phosphate and sugar groups. The nitrogenous bases protrude from that backbone. RNA is a single strand. DNA is a double strand in which the nitrogenous bases pair up between two backbones:

http://www.slideshare.net/nirmalajosephine1/biology-form-4-chapter-4-chemical-composition-of-the-cell-part-1

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