Question

What are the examples of Nucleic acids?

Answer 1

Nucleic acids:

1. Nucleic acids are the long chain polymers of nucleotides made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus.
2. It stores genetic information needed by cells to create proteins in biological systems.
3. This information is stored in multiple sets of three nucleotides, known as codons.

There are two main types of Nucleic acids :

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)

1. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) are the polymer of deoxyribonucleotides.
2. It is made up of three different molecules namely deoxyribose sugar, phosphoric acid and a nitrogenous base.
3. It stores all the genetic information of a cell and also contains instructions for the synthesis of other molecules, like proteins.

RNA (ribonucleic acid)

1. RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules are the polymers of ribonucleotides.
2. Each ribonucleotide is made up of ribose sugar, phosphoric acid and a nitrogenous base.
3. Its function is to carry out the instructions encoded in DNA.

RNA further divides into three types which are :

1. rRNA (ribosomal ribonucleic acid)
2. tRNA (transfer ribonucleic acid)
3. mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid)