which nucleic acid is pictured on the right? justify your answer.
which nucleic acid is pictured on the right? justify your answer.
Answer
Answer:
It is difficult to determine without more context. However, if the pink pentagons represent pentose - sugars, blue circles represent phosphate groups and the differently colored shapes represent nitrogen - bases, it could be either DNA or RNA. If the pentose sugar is deoxyribose (lacks an oxygen atom at the 2' position), it is DNA; if it is ribose (has an oxygen atom at the 2' position), it is RNA. Without information about the sugar type, a definite answer cannot be given.
Brief Explanations:
Nucleic acids are composed of a sugar - phosphate backbone and nitrogen - bases. DNA has deoxyribose sugar and RNA has ribose sugar. The structure shown has the general components of a nucleic acid but sugar type is unknown for identification.