Question

Assertion :Nucleic acid complexes alone cannot cause diseases. Reason: Only nucleoproteins can function as infectious agents.

• A. both assertion and reason are true and reason is the correct explanation of assertion.
• B. both assertion and reason are true but reason is not the correct explanation of assertion.
• C. assertion is true but reason is false.
• D. both assertion and reason are false

Answer 1

The correct option is D both assertion and reason are false

A nucleic acid is a polymer, made up of many monomers called nucleotides. Each nucleotide contains a nitrogenous base, 5-carbon sugar and a phosphate group. Our genetic material, DNA and RNA are made of nucleotides. So they are responsible for the transmission of the necessary information from one generation to another, and one cell to another. Changes in their structure, mechanism of action and functions have to lead to many diseased and epidemics in the past.

Nucleoproteins are not the only infectious agents. Viroids are plant pathogens, with circular RNA.

Nucleic acid interactions with proteins have also shown to be of conformational conversion of proteins into diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease etc.

So both the given statements are false.