• Nucleaic acid sequence


    Nucleotides


    Nucleic acids consist of a chain of linked unites called necleotides. Each nucleotide consists of three subunits: a phosphate group and a sugar (ribose in hte 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.

    DNA molecule strand showing double helix stucture  

    Biological significance


    In biological systems, nucleic acids  contain information which is used by a living cell to construct specific proteins.  The sequence of nucleobases on a nucleaic 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

     
dna