Nucleic Acids

There are some biological molecules, which are very much essential for human life and such molecules are called Nucleic acids. The Ribonucleic Acids (RNA) and Deoxyribonucleic Acids (DNA) are also included in such biological molecules. Most of the macromolecules are composed making use of nucleic acids along with proteins. These molecules will be found in all things, which have life. The man called Friedrich Miescher was the one who discovered the Nucleic acids in the year 1871. The detailed study on these acids has proved that they are forming the most important part in modern medical and biological research. These acids are also the platform for some fields like forensic and genome science. Of course, biotechnology is also one of the major fields dealing with these nucleic acids.

In addition, the biopolymers family is also having the generic name, which is nothing but the nucleic acids. This name is due to the role that they play in the nucleus of cells. However, later some researchers proved that some of the mitochondrion exclusives are also made up of nucleic acids. The best example in this case will of course be the DNA in Mitochondria. Nucleotides are the name given for the monomers, which helps in the formation of nucleic acids. In other words, the nucleotides are having some polymers, which are unbranched and linear and they are nothing but nucleic acids.

It is found that every nucleotide will be having three different types of compounds and they are nothing but heterocyclic base, phosphate group and pentose sugar. The heterocyclic base may be like pyrimidine and purine. What makes the difference in the nucleic acids is the sugar structure. There will be two deoxyribose in DNA, and a ribose in RNA. Moreover, there are different types of nitrogenous bases found in these nucleic acids. Some of the basic nitrogenous bases are like guanine, cytosine and adenine.

Questions:

• What are nucleic acids?
• Who discovered nucleic acids?