ABSTRACT
Carbohydrates are essential to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), especially ribose. Nucleosides and the phosphate ester derivatives called nucleotides are ribose derivatives that have a purine or pyrimidine heterocycle attached to the anomeric carbon. This chapter describes the formation and characteristics of nucleic acids, the formation of nucleosides and then nucleotides. Both DNA and RNA are known as nucleic acids, and they are biopolymers made up of repeating deoxyribofuranose or ribofuranose units. The three purines that are found in nucleosides and nucleotides are cytosine, thymine and uracil. An important six-five heterocyclic ring system that contains four nitrogen atoms is called purine, and derivatives of this fundamental heterocycle include adenine and guanine, which are components of DNA and RNA. Nucleotides are linked together by phosphate linkages to form a long-chain nucleotide, resulting in the structures of DNA and ribonucleic acids RNA.
