ABSTRACT
Nucleotides consist of a pentose sugar joined to a nitrogen base (purine or pyrimidine) and phosphate group. Nucleic acids are polymerized from nucleotides and consist of ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribosenucleic acid (DNA). In DNA, the pentose sugar is D-deoxyribose and the bases are adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine; the pentose sugar in RNA is D-ribose and the bases are adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine. There also are other bases that occur infrequently in both RNA and DNA.
