Question

A nuclease enzyme breaks the covalent bond originally connecting the phosphate to the 5' carbon in a nucleic acid. After allowing this enzyme to completely digest the nucleic acid down to monomers, you perform tests to determine where the phosphate is attached to each monomer. Where do you expect to find this phosphate

Answer 1

Phosphate remains attached to the 5' carbon of the sugar in each nucleotide monomer after nuclease digestion of nucleic acids due to the directionality and phosphodiester linkages in nucleic acid structure.

Step-by-step explanation:

After a nuclease enzyme breaks the covalent bond originally connecting the phosphate to the 5' carbon in a nucleic acid and the nucleic acid is completely digested down to monomers, tests to determine where the phosphate is attached to each monomer would reveal that the phosphate is attached to the 5' carbon of the sugar in each monomer. This result is because nucleic acids have a directionality with phosphodiester linkages formed between the 3' carbon of one nucleotide and the 5' phosphate group of another. As a consequence, when the nucleic acid is digested to individual nucleotides, each monomer will retain the phosphate group on the 5' carbon.

Answer 2

The phosphate will remain attached to the 5' carbon of the deoxy or the ribose sugar in the nucleic acid monomers.

Step-by-step explanation:

The structure of nucleic acid polymers is built up from monomers of nucleotides.

A nucleotide consists of a sugar backbone which is either a ribose or deoxyribose sugar, a nitogenous base which is either a purine or pyrimidine, and a phosphate group. The nitrogenous base is attached to the carbon number 1 or C-1 of the sugar backbone by a covalent bond. The phosphate group on the other hand is covalently attached to the carbon number 5 or 5' carbon of the sugar backbone.

When polymers of nucleic acids are formed, the phosphate at the 5' carbon of the sugar backbone is covalently linked in a phosphodiester bond to the 3' carbon of the sugar backbone in another nucleotide molecule, thus extending the strands of the nucleic acid molecule.

Nucleases are enzymes that break down the phosphodiseter bonds in nucleic acids resulting in nucleotide monomers. After complete digestion ofmthe nucleic acid polymer by nucleases, the phosphate will remain attached to the 5' carbon of the deoxy or the ribose sugar in the nucleic acid monomers.