In the case of DNA and RNA, these monomers are nucleotides. Nucleotides themselves are composed of three distinct parts: sugar, phosphate, and a nitrogenous base. Here's what each of those really ...

DNA, which stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, resembles a long, spiraling ladder. It consists of just a few kinds of atoms: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Combinations of these ...

Arsenic is a nasty poison that once reigned as the ultimate weapon of deception. In the 18th century, it was the poison of ...

The sugar-phosphate backbone forms the structural framework of nucleic acids, including DNA and RNA. This backbone is composed of alternating sugar and phosphate groups, and defines directionality ...

Nevertheless, phosphorus is more abundant on Earth than in the universe as a whole and can be found in nucleotides, phospholipids, and nucleic acids, which are critical to life as we know it.

The double-stranded DNA that results from this pattern of bonding looks much like a ladder with sugar-phosphate side supports and base-pair rungs. Note that because the two polynucleotides that ...

The sides of the DNA ladder consist of a long string of sugar and phosphate molecules, to which the bases are attached. Each sugar-phosphate-base combination is called a nucleotide. A nucleotide ...