Question

Nucleic acids are made up of _____.

Answer 1

Hint: Nitrogenous bases, sugar and phosphate groups are the monomeric unit of nucleic acids or these are the building blocks of DNA and RNA, having 3 phosphate groups, a 5 carbon sugar and nitrogenous base. They also have functions like cell signalling, metabolism and enzyme reactions.

Complete answer:-
Nucleic acid are the biomolecules made up of monomeric unit called nucleotides, all nucleic acids consist of many nucleotide bonded together known as polynucleotide and nucleotide made up of 3 parts
1. Phosphate (phosphoric acid)
2. Nitrogenous bases (purine, pyrimidine)
3. Sugar (ribose and deoxyribose)
There are two types of nucleic acids (1) DNA and(2) RNA .
DNA is the polymer of deoxyribonucleotides, many deoxyribonucleotides join to form a thread-like structure called polynucleotide. Deoxyribonucleotide comprises nitrogenous base adenine(A), guanine(G), cytosine(C), thymine(T).
RNA is a polymer of ribose sugar, nucleotides, attached by the phosphodiester bond to form a polynucleotide chain. Nucleotides comprise adenine(A), guanine(G), cytosine(C) and uracil (U) in RNA. It helps in protein synthesis carrying messenger information from DNA. Based upon their function there are 3 types of RNA :- rRNA, mRNA and tRNA.

Thus the nucleic acids are made up of nucleotides.

Note:-
DNA is the biochemical basis of heredity and reserve bank of genetic information. It is responsible for maintaining the identity of different species of organisms over millions of years. There are various applications of nucleic acid in pharmaceuticals such as used in cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune disease, control gene regulation, transcription, translation, replication, gene therapy etc.