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Acid, nucleic: One of the molecules in the chromosomes of living cells and viruses that plays a central role in the storage and replication of hereditary information and in the expression of this information through protein synthesis. The two chief types of nucleic acids are:
History: In 1869 Friedrich Miescher developed ways of isolating intact nuclei from cells and analyzing their chemical content. From the nuclei he extracted substances rich in phosphorus and nitrogen. They came to be known as "nucleic acids." Miescher predicted that they would someday be considered as important as proteins. The substances turned out to be deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which was found by Avery, MacLeod and McCarty in 1944 to be the genetic material. They proved this clearly by using bacterial DNA to change (transform) the genetic material of other bacteria.
A nucleic acid is a polymer comprising numerous nucleotides (each composed of a phosphate unit, a sugar unit, and a "base" unit) linked recursively through the sugar and ...
Nucleic Acids:DNA and RNA - This lesson is an introduction to the structure and function of DNA including the process of DNA replication.
Nucleic acids are biological molecules essential for life, and include DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid). Together with protein
Nucleic acids, mainly DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA (ribonucleic acid), are the hereditary factors responsible for the passage of traits from progenitor to ...
noun Biochemistry . any of a group of long, linear macromolecules, either DNA or various types of RNA, that carry genetic information directing all cellular functions ...