There are 4 major macromolecules in the body of a living organism.
Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids.
Two distinct forms of nucleic acids are found in nature DNA and RNA.
- DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid
- RNA stands for ribonucleic acid
Both of them consist of 3 major components
- A five-carbon ribose sugar in the case of DNA is deoxyribose sugar with oxygen removed from carbon 3 whereas in the case of RNA it is a ribose sugar.
- A nitrogenous base. There are 5 different nitrogenous bases, adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine and uracil. DNA contains purines as adenine and guanine, the same as in RNA; however pyrimidine in DNA are cytosine and thymine whereas in RNA thymine is replaced by uracil.
- A phosphate group. That is responsible for making the backbone of the structure.
One of the most distinct differences between DNA and RNA is that DNA has a double-helical structure whereas RNA is a single-stranded structure therefore DNA is more stable as compared to RNA.
