• Both DNA and RNA are?polymers?that are made up of?many repeating units?called?nucleotides
• Each nucleotide is formed from:
  • A?pentose sugar?(a sugar with 5 carbon atoms)
  • A nitrogen-containing?organic base
  • A?phosphate group

The basic structure of a mononucleotide

DNA nucleotides

• The components of a DNA nucleotide are:
  • A?deoxyribose?sugar with?hydrogen?at the 2' position
  • A phosphate group
  • One of four nitrogenous bases - adenine (A), cytosine(C), guanine(G) or thymine(T)

RNA nucleotides

• The components of an RNA nucleotide are:
  • A?ribose?sugar with a hydroxyl (OH) group at the 2' position
  • A phosphate group
  • One of four nitrogenous bases - adenine (A), cytosine(C), guanine(G) or?uracil (U)
• The presence of the?2' hydroxyl group?makes?RNA more susceptible to hydrolysis
  • This is why DNA is the storage molecule and RNA is the transport molecule with a shorter molecular lifespan

RNA nucleotide compared with an DNA nucleotide

Purines & Pyrimidines

• The?nitrogenous base?molecules that are found in the nucleotides of DNA (A, T, C, G) and RNA (A, U, C, G) occur in?two structural forms:?purines?and?pyrimidines
  • The bases?adenine?and?guanine?are?purines?– they have a?double ring structure
  • The bases?cytosine,?thymine?and?uracil?are?pyrimidines?– they have a?single ring structure

The molecular structure of each base is different, depending on whether they are a purine or?pyrimidine

• DNA and RNA are polymers (polynucleotides), meaning that they are made up of many nucleotides joined together in long chains
• Separate?nucleotides are joined via condensation reactions
  • These condensation reactions occur between the?phosphate group?of one nucleotide and the?pentose sugar?of the next nucleotide
• A condensation reaction between two nucleotides forms a?phosphodiester bond
  • It is called a phosphodiester bond because it consists of a phosphate group and?two?ester bonds (phosphate with double bond oxygen attached - oxygen - carbon)
• The chain of alternating phosphate groups and pentose sugars produced as a result of many phosphodiester bonds is known as the?sugar-phosphate backbone?(of the DNA or RNA molecule)

A section of a polynucleotide showing a single phosphodiester bond (and the positioning of the two ester bonds and the phosphate group that make up the phosphodiester bond)