Question

41. What determines the primary structure of RNA?

A. The sugar-phosphate backbone
B. Complementary base pairing and the formation of hairpin loops
C. The sequence of deoxyribonucleotides
D. The sequence of ribonucleotides

Answer 1

RNA is mainly involved in protein synthesis and contains ribose sugar and uracil as its building blocks. Unlike DNA, RNA is usually single-stranded but shows internal base pairing for its functional three-dimensional structure.

Step-by-step explanation:

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is mainly involved in protein synthesis. Like DNA, RNA is made of nucleotides linked by phosphodiester bonds. However, the nucleotides in RNA contain ribose sugar instead of deoxyribose and the nitrogenous base uracil (U) instead of thymine (T). Unlike DNA, RNA is usually single-stranded. However, most RNAs show internal base pairing between complementary sequences, creating a three-dimensional structure essential for their function.