BIOLOGY Volume 1 - A Guide to General Biology - 2004

3. CHEMICAL COMPONENTS OF LIVING ORGANISMS

3.6. DNA and RNA - Nucleic Acids

3.6.2. Formation of Dinucleotides and Polynucleotides

Two NUCLEOTIDES join to form a dinucleotide through a Condensation reaction between the phosphate group of one nucleotide and the sugar of another, as illustrated in Fig. 3.39. During polynucleotide synthesis, this process is repeated millions of times. In this way, an unbranched sugar-phosphate backbone of the polynucleotide is constructed (Fig. 3.40).

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Fig. 3.39. Structure of a dinucleotide.

Fig. 3.40. Formation of a polynucleotide.



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