What are the functional groups of DNA?

1 Answer
Ernest Z.
Jul 11, 2016

The functional groups are amine, amide, hydroxyl, glycoside linkage, and phosphodiester.

Explanation:

First, let's look at the bases in DNA.

www.education.mrsec.wisc.edu

Adenine, guanine, and cytosine have amine (#"-NH"_2)# groups, while thymine, cytosine, and guanine have amide (#"-CONH-"#) groups.

The bases are joined in DNA to form nucleotides with the general structure

Nucleotide
(from cahsbiology.weebly.com)

We see a glycoside linkage (#"O-C-N-"#) between the sugar and the base, and a hydroxyl group (#"-OH"#) and a phosphate ester (#"R-O-PO"_3^"2-"#) on the sugar.

Finally, we look at a DNA strand.

DNA Strand
(from en.wikipedia.org)

We see that the nucleotides are linked by phosphate diester groups from one sugar molecule to the next one in the chain..

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