19 2 Nucleic Acid Structure The Basics Of General Organic And

19 2 Nucleic Acid Structure The Basics Of General Organ Nucleic acids are large polymers formed by linking nucleotides together and are found in every cell. deoxyribonucleic acid (dna) is the nucleic acid that stores genetic information. if all the dna in a typical mammalian cell were stretched out end to end, it would extend more than 2 m. ribonucleic acid (rna) is the nucleic acid responsible for. This is why these compounds are known as nucleic acids. figure 19.2.1 19.2. 1 structure of a segment of dna. a similar segment of rna would have oh groups on each c2′, and uracil would replace thymine. like proteins, nucleic acids have a primary structure that is defined as the sequence of their nucleotides.

19 2 Nucleic Acid Structure The Basics Of General Organ 19.s: nucleic acids (summary) to ensure that you understand the material in this chapter, you should review the meanings of the bold terms in the following summary and ask yourself how they relate to the topics in the chapter. template:hidetoc. 19: nucleic acids. the blueprint for the reproduction and the maintenance of each organism is found. The sugar in the nucleotides of rna is ribose; the one in dna is 2 deoxyribose. the sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid defines the primary structure of the molecule. rna is a single chain nucleic acid, whereas dna possesses two nucleic acid chains intertwined in a secondary structure called a double helix. the sugar phosphate backbone. Both nucleic acids —dna and rna—are polymers composed of monomers known as nucleotides, which in turn consist of phosphoric acid (h 3 po 4), a nitrogenous base, and a pentose sugar. the two types of nitrogenous bases most important in nucleic acids are purines —adenine (a) and guanine (g)—and pyrimidines —cytosine (c), thymine (t. The structure of rna has evolved to serve those added functions. the core structure of a nucleic acid monomer is the nucleoside, which consists of a sugar residue a nitrogenous base that is attached to the sugar residue at the 1′ position as shown in figure section1.6.2 s e c t i o n 1.6. 2.