nucleotide structure

• nucleic acids are polymers made of monomers called nucleotides
• a molecule containing many nucleotides is called a polynucleotide
• a nucleotide has 3 components

  1. a phosphate group
  2. a pentose sugar
  3. an organic base
• there are two groups of organic bases

  1. pyrimidine - thymine, cytosine and uracil
  2. purine - adenine guanine
• structure of a nucleotide

  A) base

  B) pentose sugar

  C) phosphate

  
• chemical energy and biological processes

  chemical bonds must break or be made for reactions to happen

  heterotrophic - chemical energy must be derived from food

  autotrophic - chemical energy converted from light energy