Biological Molecules
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Structure and function of polymers are derived from the way their monomers are assembled. In nucleic acids, biological information is encoded in sequences of nucleotide monomers. Each nucleotide has structural components: a five-carbon sugar (deoxyribose or ribose), a phosphate and a nitrogen base (adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine or uracil). DNA and RNA differ in function and differ slightly in structure, and these structural differences account for the differing functions. In proteins, the specific order of amino acids in a polypeptide interacts with the environment to determine the overall shape of the protein, which also involves secondary tertiary and quaternary structure and, thus, its function. The R group of an amino acid can be categorized by chemical properties (hydrophobic, hydrophilic and ionic), and the interactionsof these R groups determine structure and function of that region of the protein