Nucleic Acid

If proteins are like beads on a string nucleic acids are the pigments that give the beads their color and personality. Well, maybe that is a little too colorful to be helpful. RNA and DNA are nucleic acids and nucleic acids are long polymers with 3 basic parts; a sugar, a phosphate and a nitrogenous base. The sugar and phosphate make up the backbone of the molecule, linking through phosphodiester bonds. The coding section of the nucleic acid comes in the nitrogenous bases.  These are the ATCG or AUCG of DNA and RNA. (For more on coding visit a previous poston the topic).