Final answer:
The false statement about nucleotide structure is that the phosphate group is bonded to the nitrogenous base. In reality, the phosphate group is bonded to the pentose sugar's 5' carbon, not the nitrogenous base. Thus, the statement b is the correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement about nucleotide structure that is false is: b. The phosphate group is bonded to the nitrogenous base. In fact, the phosphate group is bonded to the 5' carbon of the pentose sugar, while the nitrogenous base is attached to the 1' carbon of the sugar. Both ribose and deoxyribose can serve as the sugar component in a nucleotide, with deoxyribose being a defining component of DNA and ribose of RNA. A nucleotide's phosphodiester linkage is formed between the phosphate group of one nucleotide and the 3' hydroxyl group of another.