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Linear Macromolecules

Satisfactory Essays

Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, like proteins, is a linear macromolecule found in all living cells. In contrast to proteins, however, it is build up of only 4 different types of building blocks, called nucleotides. Nucleotides are composed of a base, being either a purine or pyrimidine group, and a 2'-deoxyribosyl-tri-phosphate. The four types of bases composing the sequence of DNA are purines and pyramidines. The sugar is a 2'-deoxy ribose which is phosphorylated at its 5' hydroxyl group. Free nucleotides contain either one, two or three phosphates representing the mono-, di-, or triphosphate form of the nucleotide, the latter being known as dATP, dGTP, dTTP, and dCTP. Single DNA strands are not stable, but associate with a second strand to

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