Answer:
d. nitrogen-containing base
.
Explanation:
A nucleotide comprises a phosphate group, a pentose sugar and a nitrogenous base (nitrogen-containing base).
A nitrogenous base is a type of aromatic heterocyclic organic compound which essentially has nitrogen in it. The base can be a purine or pyrimidine. Purine nitrogenous bases are adenine (A) and guanine (G) while pyrimidine nitrogenous bases are cytosine (C), thiamine (T) and uracil (U).
Till the time a base is not attached to covalently linked phosphate group and a pentose sugar, it is known as nucleoside. But as soon as we attach any nitrogenous base to the nucleoside, a nucleotide is formed. So it means a nucleotide is nucleoside + nitrogenous base.
Examples are as under:
A nucleotide which has adenine as nitrogenous base is known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP) while a nucleotide which has guanine as nitrogenous base is known as Guanosine-5'-triphosphate (GTP).
