Distinguish between nucleic acid and nucleotides. 2. What are biopolymers? 3. Write a short note on DNA discovery.

Here are the answers to your assignment questions:

a) A nucleotide is the basic building block (monomer) of nucleic acids, consisting of a sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base. A nucleic acid is a large biopolymer (macromolecule) formed by the linking together of many nucleotide monomers. Examples include DNA and RNA.

b) Biopolymers are large molecules (macromolecules) produced by living organisms, composed of repeating smaller monomer units. They are essential for life and include proteins (made of amino acids), nucleic acids (made of nucleotides), and polysaccharides (made of monosaccharides).

c) The discovery of the structure of DNA was a pivotal moment in biology. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick, building on the X-ray diffraction work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, proposed the double helix model for DNA. This model revealed how genetic information is stored and replicated, laying the foundation for modern molecular biology.