Question #98820
1 Answer
Jun 11, 2017
In nucleic acids such as DNA or RNA, the two strands of a double stranded DNA molecule will have identical sugar phosphate backbones composed of 2-deoxyribose and a phosphate group.
Explanation:
In a DNA molecule, only the nitrogenous bases are complementary as in the case of Adenine which complements Thymine and Guanine which complements Cytosine. The sugar phosphate backbones of the 2 strands are identical in composition and is needed to maintain the stability of the DNA molecule. Perhaps the only difference between the backbones of the two DNA strands is that they run anti-parallel to each other where one runs from a 5' phosphate end to a 3'-OH end while the other strand runs from a 3'-OH end to a 5' phosphate end.
