Question

What linkage joins the monomers in each strand of DNA?

Short answer

DNA and RNA are held together by phosphodiester and hydrogen bonds. Each strand of DNA has a phosphodiester linkage that binds the monomers

Step-by-step solution

What exactly is a nucleic acid?

Mononucleotides, which comprise a nitrogen-containing base, a sugar, and a phosphate group, make up nucleic acids, which are unbranched polymers.

There are two kinds of nucleic acids:

1. Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is a five-carbon sugar that contains ribose.

2. DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid similarly contains ribose; the only difference is that the -OH group is replaced by the -H group at the ribose site.

DNA is made up of two strands wrapped around each other in a double helix form. Each base is coupled with the same base or, more accurately, the same partner. G (guanine) with C and A (adenine) with T (thymine) (cytosine). Adenine and thymine may make two hydrogen bonds, while cytosine and guanine can form three hydrogen bonds.

What connects the monomers in each DNA strand?

Nucleic acids are the building blocks of life. Phosphodiester and hydrogen bonds bind DNA and RNA together. The phosphodiester linkage connects the monomers in each strand of DNA.

The connection is between one sugar molecule's 3' carbon atom, and another's 5' carbon atom. The linking structure is extremely complicated.