Question

If a sequence of nitrogen bases in nucleic acid were A-U-C-G-A, which of the following would be true about the nucleic acid?

a. It contains deoxyribose sugar.
b. It could be found only in the nucleus.
c. It contains ribose sugar.

Answer 1

The nucleic acid sequence A-U-C-G-A contains ribose sugar because it includes uracil, which is unique to RNA. The correct answer is c. It contains ribose sugar.

Step-by-step explanation:

The sequence A-U-C-G-A suggests that the nucleic acid is RNA (ribonucleic acid), not DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). The presence of uracil (U) instead of thymine (T) is characteristic of RNA. RNA contains ribose sugar in its backbone, whereas DNA contains deoxyribose sugar. The "ribose" in ribonucleic acid refers to the five-carbon sugar molecule present in its structure. In contrast, DNA has deoxyribose, where one oxygen atom is missing compared to ribose.

Additionally, RNA is not restricted to the nucleus and can be found both in the nucleus and the cytoplasm of a cell. Various types of RNA, such as messenger RNA (mRNA) and transfer RNA (tRNA), play essential roles in processes like protein synthesis, which occurs in the cytoplasm. Therefore, the correct statement is that it contains ribose sugar. Therefore, the correct answer is c. It contains ribose sugar.