What Is Nucleic Acid

This section provides a quick introduction of nucleic acid, which is two or more nucleotides linked to together with ester bonds forming a chain of nucleotides. A nucleic acid is also called a nucleotide polymer.

What Is Nucleic Acid? - A nucleic acid is two or more nucleotides linked to together with ester bonds forming a chain of nucleotides. A nucleic acid is also called a nucleotide polymer.

When two nucleotides go through a condensation reaction, they form an ester bond, resulting a nucleic acid and eliminating a water as shown below (source: genius.com). This ester bond connects an Oxygen in the phosphate of the first nucleotide to the 3' Carbon in the 5-carbon sugar of the second nucleotide.

Nucleotide + Nucleotide = Nucleic Acid
Nucleotide + Nucleotide = Nucleic Acid

A nucleic acid can continue to go through another condensation reaction to bond with another nucleotide to become a longer nucleic acid. This process of linking multiple nucleotides into a long nucleic acid is called nucleotide polymerization. The picture below shows 3 nucleotides linked to form a nucleic acid (source: lumenlearning.com). Notice that a nucleic acid has a direction going from the top (the 5' end of the first nucleotide) to the bottom (the 3' end of the last nucleotide).

Nucleotide + Nucleotide + Nucleotide = Nucleic Acid
Nucleotide + Nucleotide = Nucleic Acid

What Is Nucleic Acid Backbone? - The nucleic acid backbone refers the sequence of sugar-phosphate pairs in a nucleic acid as shown below (source: slideserve.com):

Nucleic Acid Backbone
Nucleic Acid Backbone

What Is Nucleotide Residue? - A nucleotide residue refers to the remaining structure of a nucleotide after it went through a condensation reaction to form a nucleic acid.

So a nucleic acid is also called a chain of nucleotide residues.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction of Molecules

 Molecule Names and Identifications

 Molecule Mass and Weight

 Protein and Amino Acid

Nucleobase, Nucleoside, Nucleotide, DNA and RNA

 What Is Nucleobase

 What Is Nucleoside

 What Is Nucleotide

What Is Nucleic Acid

 What Is RNA (Ribonucleic Acid)

 What Is DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)

 RNA Primary Structure - Helix

 DNA Primary Structure - Double Helix

 What Is DNA/RNA Base and Sequence Pair

 What Is Chromosome

 Gene and Chromosome

 Protein Kinase (PK)

 DNA Sequencing

 Gene Mutation

 SDF (Structure Data File)

 PyMol Installation

 PyMol GUI and CLI

 PyMol Selections

 PyMol Editing Functions

 PyMol Measurement Functions

 PyMol Movie Functions

 PyMol Python Integration

 PyMol Object Functions

 ChEMBL Database - European Molecular Biology Laboratory

 PubChem Database - National Library of Medicine

 PDB (Protein Data Bank)

 INSDC (International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration)

 HGNC (HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee)

 Relocated Tutorials

 Resources and Tools

 Molecule Related Terminologies

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB