Q.What are nucleic acids? Mention their two important functions.

A polynucleotide chain has three repeating components: a phosphate group, a pentose sugar, and a nitrogenous base. Understanding how these connect is fundamental to DNA and RNA structure.

The sugar-phosphate backbone forms the structural spine of nucleic acids, with phosphodiester bonds linking one sugar's 5′ carbon to the next sugar's 3′ carbon through a phosphate group. But the bases — the information-carrying units — must attach to this backbone somehow. That attachment is what we're identifying here.

The N-glycosidic linkage is a covalent bond between the anomeric carbon (C1′) of the pentose sugar and a nitrogen atom of the nitrogenous base. In purines (adenine, guanine), this nitrogen is N9; in pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine, uracil), it's N1. This bond is called "glycosidic" because it resembles the linkage in carbohydrates, and "N-" specifies that it involves a nitrogen atom rather than oxygen.

Let's eliminate the other options systematically:

1. Hydrogen bonds (A) are weak, non-covalent interactions that hold complementary base pairs together across the two strands of a DNA double helix (A–T, G–C). They do NOT attach bases to the sugar within a single strand. The schematic shows a single polynucleotide chain, not inter-strand pairing.

2. Peptide bonds (B) link amino acids in proteins through a C–N bond between a carboxyl group and an amino group. Nucleic acids contain no peptide bonds — this is a protein-specific linkage. …

Why DNA strands must be both anti-parallel and complementary

The architecture of DNA isn't arbitrary—it's dictated by the chemistry of how nucleotides bond and how bases recognize each other. Understanding these two properties separately, then seeing why they must coexist, reveals the elegance of the double helix.

The complementarity principle

When Watson and Crick solved DNA's structure in 1953, the breakthrough was recognizing that bases pair in a specific way: adenine (A) always pairs with thymine (T) through two hydrogen bonds, while guanine (G) pairs with cytosine (C) through three hydrogen bonds. This isn't random preference—it's geometric necessity.

The purine bases (A and G, with their double-ring structure) are larger than the pyrimidine bases (T and C, single-ring). If two purines tried to pair, they'd be too bulky and distort the helix. If two pyrimidines paired, they'd be too small to bridge the gap. Only purine-pyrimidine pairs maintain the uniform diameter of the helix (about 2 nm).

Beyond size, the hydrogen-bonding patterns are specific:

• A and T have exactly the right donor and acceptor groups to form two stable H-bonds
• G and C form three H-bonds in perfect alignment
• Other combinations either can't form enough bonds or have steric clashes

This means if one strand reads 5'-ATGC-3', the other must read 3'-TACG-5' to satisfy base-pairing rules. The strands are complementary, not identical.

The anti-parallel orientation

Now consider the sugar-phosphate backbone. Each nucleotide has a deoxyribose sugar with a phosphate group attached to its 5' carbon and the next nucleotide's sugar attached via its 3' carbon. This creates directionality: one end of a strand has a free 5' phosphate, the other a free 3' hydroxyl.

In the double helix, the two strands run in opposite directions—one goes 5' → 3' while its partner goes 3' → 5'. This anti-parallel arrangement is required because:

1. The geometry of base pairing only works when the glycosidic bonds (connecting base to sugar) are positioned correctly relative to each other
2. The major and minor grooves of the helix form only when strands are anti-parallel
3. The hydrogen bonds between bases align properly only in this configuration

If the strands were parallel (both 5' → 3'), the bases couldn't pair—the geometry would be all wrong, with the glycosidic bonds pointing in incompatible directions. …

Part (a)

Glycosidic linkage. It forms when the anomeric carbon of a sugar reacts with an $-OH$ of another molecule, eliminating water. Between two monosaccharides it appears as an oxygen bridge $C-O-C$, and it joins the units of di- and polysaccharides (maltose, starch, cellulose). It is cleaved by glycosidases.

Peptide linkage. It is the amide bond formed between the $\alpha$-carboxyl group of one amino acid and the $\alpha$-amino group of the next, with loss of water, written $-CO-NH-$. It is the backbone bond of every polypeptide/protein and is cleaved by proteases. …