Question

Ribose and 2-deoxyribose have an important role in biology. Among the most important derivatives are those with phosphate groups attached at the 5 position. Mono-, di- and tri-phosphate forms are important, as well as 3-5 cyclic monophosphates. Purines and pyrimidines form an important class of compounds with ribose and deoxyribose. When these purine and pyrimidine derivatives are coupled to a ribose sugar, they are called nucleosides.
Answer the following questions :
(a) What products would be formed when DNA is hydrolyzed? How is DNA different from RNA with reference to structure?

Hint:

Remember, DNA stores genetic information and is double-stranded, while RNA is involved in protein synthesis and is single-stranded.

Answer 1

When DNA is hydrolyzed, the products formed are nucleotides. The hydrolysis breaks the phosphodiester bonds between nucleotides, resulting in the formation of individual nucleotide units. DNA is different from RNA in that DNA contains deoxyribose as the sugar, while RNA contains ribose. Additionally, DNA is double-stranded and forms a double helix, whereas RNA is single-stranded. DNA uses thymine as a nitrogenous base, while RNA uses uracil in place of thymine.