29. Do the phosphate and the
pentose groups give
homogeneity or heterogeneity
to the nucleicacid chains?
What about the nitrogen containing groups? Supported
by that, which of those groups
is expected to directly
participate in the highly
diverse and heterogeneous
genetic coding, i.e., which of
those groups is the basis of
the information for protein
production?

Gap-fill exercise

Fill in all the gaps, then press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. You can also click on the "[?]" button to get a clue. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints or clues!
The and the groups
are the same in every nucleotide that
forms the acid and so they give
homogeneity to the molecule. The
nitrogen-containing bases however can
vary among , , ,
(in DNA) and (in RNA).
These variations provide the
het of the nucleic acid
molecule.

Homogeneous portions of a molecule
seldom would store any information, by
the same reason that a sequence of the
same letter of the alphabet cannot
make many words with different
meanings. The nitrogen-containing
bases, on the other hand, because they
are different (four different types for
RNA or DNA), can make different
sequences and combinations that allow
the diversityof the genetic code.