5.4 Chemistry of Nucleic Acids

. Chemistry of Nucleic Acids Having identified the genetic material as the nucleic acid DNA (or RNA), we proceed to examine the chemical structure of these molecules. Generally nucleic acids are a long chain or polymer of repeating subunits called nucleotides. Each nucleotide subunit is composed of three parts: a nitrogenous base, a five carbon sugar (pentose) and a phosphate group.