I am having trouble finding out what is inorganic phosphate in regards to the DNA structure if you have any?

Question

information, with a web site or a book as reference please let me know. Thank You and yes this is for homework, I can't find it in my book or in my notes.

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphate
Phosphate is an ion, PO4(3-).
Biologically it can be a functional group, R-PO4. Don't worry too much how many H's you draw with it. The protonation depends on the solution pH, so you'll see it drawn differently at various times; the most important part is the PO4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA#Physical_and_chemical_properties
Check out the phosphate backbone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleotide_triphosphates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleotide
Check out the deoxynucleotide trisphosphates (dNTPs).


If you need more information check out these books:
DNA replication is a good thing to look up to see the importance of the phosphate.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=mboc4.TOC&depth=2
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=mcb.TOC

Answer 2

An organic compound contains carbon. An inorganic one does not.

Phosphate PO4 is inorganic because it doesn't have any carbon atoms. However it is the backbone of a DNA strand. On the DNA strand, the phosphates are linked together, the ribose is attached to the phosphate and the base (A,C,G,orT) is attached to the ribose. The ribose and the bases contain carbon atoms (plus other atoms like Hydrogen and Oxygen) and so they are organic.