What is DNA made of?
DNA is made of chemical building blocks called nucleotides. These building blocks are made of three parts: a phosphate group, a sugar group and one of four types of nitrogen bases.
To form a strand of DNA, nucleotides are linked into chains, with the phosphate and sugar groups alternating. DNA is made up of a sugar and phosphate backbone and the bases are made of nitrogen which are held together with hydrogen bonds in between each base pair. |
References
- What is DNA made of? 2015, NIH, accessed 24 March 2015, <https://www.genome.gov/25520880>.