what are the subunits that make up nucleic acids?

nucleotide monomers

a nucleotide is composed of:
A Nitrogenous Base (purine or pyrimidine)
A Five-Carbon Sugar
A Phosphate Group

The subunits that make up nucleic acids are called nucleotides. To understand how nucleotides form nucleic acids, let's break it down:

A nucleotide consists of three main components:
1. A nitrogenous base: There are four types of nitrogenous bases in nucleotides: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T) in DNA nucleotides, or uracil (U) in RNA nucleotides.
2. A five-carbon sugar: Nucleotides can have either deoxyribose sugar (in DNA) or ribose sugar (in RNA). Deoxyribose and ribose differ only by the presence or absence of an oxygen atom on the second carbon.
3. A phosphate group: Nucleotides also contain a phosphate group, which is composed of a phosphorus atom bonded to four oxygen atoms.

When nucleotides bond together through a process called condensation or dehydration synthesis, they form larger chains known as nucleic acids. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is made up of nucleotides with deoxyribose as the sugar component, while RNA (ribonucleic acid) contains nucleotides with ribose as the sugar component.

In DNA, the nucleotides bond together in a specific pattern: adenine (A) pairs with thymine (T) using two hydrogen bonds, and cytosine (C) pairs with guanine (G) using three hydrogen bonds. In RNA, uracil (U) replaces thymine (T) as the complementary base to adenine (A).

So, to recap, nucleotides are the subunits of nucleic acids, and they consist of a nitrogenous base, a sugar molecule (ribose or deoxyribose), and a phosphate group. By joining these nucleotides together, either DNA or RNA molecules are formed.