Oh that dreadful word! Sugar! Sweet, addictive, secretly makes that tummy become chubby. But two out of the numerous sugars we know of help make us who we are! That’s right. DNA and RNA have sugars in them, which make up the very backbone of these molecules.
DEOXYRIBOSE and RIBOSE are the sugars found in DNA and RNA respectively. both are almost identical, ALMOST. Their names reveal that Deoxyribose has lesser oxygen atoms than Ribose (duh!). Sugars are found naturally in ring forms and not the simple straight chains, because nature loves being complex. sugar rings made of 5 elements are called “FURANOSE” rings.
The carbon atoms in them are numbered with a “prime” symbol (‘), since carbons of the nitrogenous bases are numbered normally, and we don’t wanna be confused with our carbons. The N-base is attached to the 1′ and phosphate to the 5’ carbon.
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