Nucleic acid sequence

Nucleotides

Nucleic acids consist of a chain of linked unites called nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of three subunits: a phosphate group and a sugar (ribose in the case of RNA, deoxyribose in DNA) make up the backbone of the nucleic acid strand, and attached to the sugar is one of a set of nucleobases.

Biological significance

In biological systems, nucleic acids (Wikipedia Article about DNA will open in new window) contain information which is used by a living cell to construct specific proteins.  The sequence of nucleobases on a nucleic acid strand is translated by cell machinery into a sequence of amino acids making up a protein strand.

The different nucleobases that make up DNA are 

• Adenine
• Cytosine
• Guanine
• Thymine

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