Nucleic acids are the biolmolecules which are responsible for carrying information from one generation of organisms to the other. There are two types of nucleic acid namely the deoxyribo nucleic acid (DNA) and the ribo nucleic acid (RNA).
The similarity between the DNA and RNA is that both act as the genetic material carrying genetic information in them. Both are made up of polynucleotide chain with the repeating units called the nucleotides containing a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and phosphate. The difference lies in the type of the sugar and nitrogenous bases present. In RNA, the sugar is a ribose. In DNA, the sugar is a deoxy ribose derived from a ribose sugar by the loss of an oxygen atom. The nitrogenous bases of DNA are the adenine, guanine, thymine and cytosine. Whereas, the nitrogenous bases of RNA are the adenine, guanine, cytosine and uracil. Also, DNA is a double stranded molecule with two polynucleotide chains, whereas RNA is single stranded.
