Structure Guide. Nucleotides. Biochemistry: Nucleic Acids. The nucleic acids are the building blocks of living organisms. You may have heard of DNA described the same way. Guess what? DNA is just one type of nucleic acid. Some other types are RNA, mRNA, and tRNA. While you probably don't have to remember the full words right now, we should tell you that DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. We already told you about the biggie nucleic acids (DNA, mRNA, tRNA). There are five easy parts of nucleic acids. These nucleotides are made of three parts: 1. Nucleic Acids. Nucleic acids allow organisms to transfer genetic information from one generation to the next. There are two types of nucleic acids: deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA and ribonucleic acid, better known as RNA. When a cell divides, its DNA is copied and passed from one cell generation to the next generation. DNA contains the "programmatic instructions" for cellular activities.
When organisms produce offspring, these instructions, in the form of DNA, are passed down. RNA is involved in the synthesis of proteins. "Information" is typically passed from DNA to RNA to the resulting proteins. Nucleic acids: Nucleotides Nucleic acids are composed of nucleotide monomers. Polynucleotides In polynucleotides, nucleotides are joined to one another by covalent bonds between the phosphate of one and the sugar of another. More Molecules. What is DNA?