Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 16.3.
Structures of pentoses in nucleic acids.
strands (Fig. 16.6). Hydrogen bonds are individually weak;
however, the large number of hydrogen bonds along a nucleic
acid chain provides su
cient stability to hold the two strands
together. While hydrogen atoms of amino group serves as the
hydrogen bond donor, carbonyl oxygen and ring nitrogen serve
as acceptors.
Like proteins, nucleic acids have different modes of structure.
Nucleotide sequence and covalent structure form the primary
structure of nucleic acids. When nucleotides form regular and
stable structures, it is referred as secondary structure. The ternary
structure is considered as the folding of large chromosomes within
the chromatin.
