<span>The RNA world is the hypothesized format of chemical life that existed prior to our current DNA and RNA world. In the RNA world, RNA molecules formed in the primordial soup and began to evolve by self-replication and mutation. This led to increased complexity, natural selection of "better" RNA and diversification of RNA based life.</span>
Answer: Option B) phosphate; hydroxyl; 3'
We identify nucleic acid strand orientation on the basis of important chemical functional groups. These are the phosphate group attached to the 5' carbon atom of the sugar portion of a nucleotide and the hydroxyl group attached to the 3'
carbon atom
Explanation:
For both RNA and DNA, chemical groups such as phosphate (PO3-) attaches to the 5' carbon of the pentose sugar (deoxyribose in DNA, ribose in RNA).
While hydroxyl group (OH) attaches to the 3' carbon atom of the pentose sugar.
Thus, a nucleic acid structure structure reveals a several repeating units of nucleotides where nitrogenous base links to a pentose sugar, who in turns is linked to phosphate group