what are nucleic acids made of?

Question

What are nucleic acids made of? Please help!

Answer 1

A nucleic acid is a macromolecule made from nucleotide chains. In biochemistry these molecules carry genetic information or form structures within cells. The most common nucleic acids are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA). Nucleic acids are universal in living things as they are found in all cells and viruses.

Artificial nucleic acids include peptide nucleic acid (PNA), Morpholino and locked nucleic acid (LNA), as well as glycol nucleic acid (GNA) and threose nucleic acid (TNA). Each of these is distinguished from naturally-occurring DNA or RNA by changes to the backbone of the molecule.



Chemical structure-

The term "nucleic acid" is the generic name of a family of biopolymers, named for their role in a cell nucleus. The monomers from which nucleic acids are constructed are called nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of three components: a nitrogenous heterocyclic base, which is either a purine or a pyrimidine; a pentose sugar; and a phosphate group. Different nucleic acid types differ in the structure of the sugar in their nucleotides - DNA contains 2-deoxyriboses while RNA contains ribose. Likewise, the nitrogenous bases found in the two nucleic acids are different: adenine, cytosine, and guanine are in both RNA and DNA, while thymine only occurs in DNA and uracil only occurs in RNA. Other rare nucleic acid bases can occur, for example inosine in strands of mature transfer RNA.

Nucleic acids are usually either single-stranded or double-stranded, though structures with three or more strands can form. A double-stranded nucleic acid consists of two single-stranded nucleic acids hydrogen-bonded together, such as in the DNA double helix. In contrast, RNA is usually single-stranded, but any given strand may fold back upon itself to form double-helical regions. Within cells, DNA is usually double-stranded, though some viruses have single-stranded DNA as their genome.

The sugars and phosphates in nucleic acids are connected to each other in an alternating chain, linked by shared oxygens, forming a phosphodiester functional group. In conventional nomenclature, the carbons to which the phosphate groups are attached are the 3' and the 5' carbons of the sugar. The bases extend from a glycosidic linkage to the 1' carbon of the pentose sugar ring.

Answer 2

Nucleotides.

A nucleotide is made of a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar, and a bit of phosphate backbone.

Those things are made from carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and phosphorus.

Answer 3

a complex organic substance present in living cells, esp. DNA or RNA, whose molecules consist of many nucleotides linked in a long chain.

Answer 4

The building blocks are nucleotides.

The elements are C, H, O, N, P.

Answer 5

amino acids im pretty sure

Answer 6

atoms

Answer 7

boms i guess