e. Formation of Nucleic Acids

Nucleotides are thought to have formed through reactions between phosphoric acid, sugar and nitrogenous bases (the purines and pyrimidines that had already appeared in the primitive broth). Once formed, large numbers of these nucleotides joined together end to end to build the two nucleic acids, RNA and DNA. This was a pivotal step, because nucleic acids possess the ability to self-replicate — the single most fundamental property that defines a living form, and one t …