Molecule Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - v1.26, by Herong Yang
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.
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).
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):
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
Molecule Names and Identifications
►Nucleobase, Nucleoside, Nucleotide, DNA and RNA
What Is RNA (Ribonucleic Acid)
What Is DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)
DNA Primary Structure - Double Helix
What Is DNA/RNA Base and Sequence Pair
ChEMBL Database - European Molecular Biology Laboratory
PubChem Database - National Library of Medicine
INSDC (International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration)
HGNC (HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee)