Final answer:
Nucleotides are the building blocks of nucleic acids, comprising a phosphate group, a pentose sugar, and a nitrogen-containing base. They are essential for the structure and function of DNA and RNA, which contain genetic information.
Step-by-step explanation:
The building blocks of nucleic acids are nucleotides. Each nucleotide is composed of three parts: a phosphate group, a pentose sugar, and a nitrogen-containing base. Nucleic acids, such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), use these nucleotides to store and transmit genetic information.
The pentose sugar in DNA is deoxyribose, and in RNA, it is ribose. The nitrogenous bases in DNA are adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T), whereas RNA uses uracil (U) instead of thymine. Nucleotides are connected by covalent bonds between the phosphate of one nucleotide and the sugar of another, forming a sugar-phosphate backbone that is essential for the structure of DNA and RNA.