Dr. Joan Simam
, Nucleic acids
• Polymers of nucleo7des are termed polynucleo)des or nucleic
acids, be:er known as DNA and RNA.
• Each nucleic acid is made from just four different nucleo7des.
• RNA contain the bases adenine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil
• DNA contain adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine.
• Polymeriza7on involves the phosphate and sugar groups of the
nucleo7des, which become linked by phosphodiester bonds
• primary role: act as carriers of gene7c informa7on, which is
contained in their sequence of nucleo7de residues
,Nucleo7de Structure
, Bases