What Are the Three Main Parts of a Nucleotide?
The Three Main Parts of a Nucleotide are five carbon sugar, a phosphate group and nitrogenous bases. These three elements work together to create the diversity of Nucleotides, and the precise sequences that these Nucleotides follow along a DNA or RNA strand contain the genetic information required for a variety of biological processes, such as genetic inheritance and protein production.
Sugar Group ( Deoxyribose in DNA and Ribose in RNA)
Ribose is a part of the Nucleotides of RNA. Being a pentose sugar, its chemical structure consists of five carbon atoms. Together with carbon, atoms of oxygen and hydrogen are also included in the chemical structure of ribose. DNA contains deoxyribose sugar, which is somewhat different from the ribose sugar present in RNA.
Nitrogenous Base
These are the Nucleotide bases present in RNA and DNA including adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine in DNA, and adenine, cytosine, guanine, uracil in RNA. Genetic information is transmitted by the genetic code, which depends on these bases. Protein synthesis and other biological processes are genetically coded by the arrangement of these nucleotides along a DNA or RNA strand.
Phosphate Group
It is composed of oxygen molecule and phosphorus and attached to the ribose sugar. Phosphate group is also responsible for negative charge of nucleic acid. This negative charge is essential to the structure and operation of nucleic acids, affecting how they interact with other molecules and how cells operate. The sugar found in DNA is called deoxyribose, and a phosphate group forms a 3′-5′ phosphodiester bond by joining the 3′ carbon of one deoxyribose molecule to the 5′ carbon of the next. In RNA, ribose is the sugar, and phosphate groups similarly create phosphodiester bonds between 3′ and 5′ carbons. However, one of the nitrogenous bases in RNA is replaced by uracil (U), rather than thymine (T).
What are the Three Main Parts of a Nucleotide?
The Three Main Parts of a Nucleotide are ribose sugar (a five-carbon sugar), a nitrogenous base that is adenine, thymine, cytosine, guanine in DNA, and adenine, cytosine, guanine, uracil in RNA, and a phosphate group. A crucial component of base pairing selectivity in DNA and RNA is the nitrogenous base, which is joined to the ribose sugar.
The fundamental building units of nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, are these three elements together. DNA and RNA are responsible for passing genetic information from parents to offspring. In this article, we will learn about the Structure, Characteristics, and Functions of the Three Parts of Nucleotides.
Table of Content
- What are Nucleotides?
- Diagram of Three Main Parts of Nucleotide
- What Are the Three Main Parts of a Nucleotide?
- Structure of Nucleotides
- Functions of Nucleotide