The monomers of nucleic acids, ____________, have the same structure as ATP except for the two extra phosphate groups on the end of ATP molecules.
a
nucleotides
b
monosaccharides
c
amino acids
d
fatty acids
The correct answer is: b) nucleotides
a) nucleotides
The correct answer is (b) nucleotides.
To understand why nucleotides are the monomers of nucleic acids, we need to learn about the structure of nucleic acids and ATP.
Nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, are long chains of repeating subunits called nucleotides. Nucleotides are made up of three components: a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar, and a phosphate group. The nitrogenous base can be one of four types: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C), or guanine (G) in DNA, or adenine (A), uracil (U), cytosine (C), or guanine (G) in RNA.
ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate, which is a molecule that serves as the main energy currency of the cell. It consists of the nitrogenous base adenine, the pentose sugar ribose, and three phosphate groups (hence the name "triphosphate").
The monomers of nucleic acids, which are nucleotides, have a similar structure to ATP. They also contain a nitrogenous base (A, T, C, or G), a pentose sugar (deoxyribose in DNA or ribose in RNA), and a phosphate group. The main difference is that ATP has two extra phosphate groups attached to the sugar, which are involved in storing and transferring energy.
In summary, nucleotides are the monomers of nucleic acids and have the same structure as ATP, except for the presence of two extra phosphate groups on ATP molecules. Therefore, the correct answer is (b) nucleotides.