A NUCLEIC ACID is one of the four biomolecules. It is a polymer made up of monomeric units called NUCLEOTIDES. A nucleotide unit consists of a five-carbon sugar, nitrogenous base and phosphate group.
The two nucleic acids we have in nature; DNA and RNA are named after the type of pentose sugar contained in each of them. DNA is named Deoxyribosenucleic acid because it contains Deoxyribose pentose sugar while RNA is named Ribosenucleic acid because it contains Ribose pentose sugar.
These two sugars (Deoxyribose and Ribose) differ from one another in the sense that an hydroxyl group (―OH) is absent on the 2′ carbon of the sugar ring in Deoxyribose.
