• 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 a 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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    DNA strand