Polymers RNA and

The bulk of the cellular nucleotides are in the form of the polymers RNA and DNA. In each case the polymerization process is simply a nucleotidyl transfer reaction of nucleoside triphosphates to form a chain of nucleoside monophosphates in 3, 5 -phosphodiester linkage, with consequent release of pyrophosphate. 

Earlier studies of supramolecular order of mesogenic sidechains chemically linked to coiling polymers threw light on the way the conformation of the flexible chain adapts to the order of the sidechains [32]. Neutron scattering revealed a microsegregation of the polymer in interlayers within the smectic layers of the sidechains, with specific interlayer defects. The problem is relevant also to cases in which mesogenic sidechains are noncovalently linked to a flexible chain. This class of systems has been reviewed by Imrie [33] and by Kato and Frechet [34] (cf. also this volume. Chapter 4). In the TMV assembly schematized in Fig. 6D, the polymer (RNA) and the tapered protein units are also connected via supramolecular interactions. 

The ribosomes are ribonucleoprotein particles consisting of high-polymer RNA and a number of structural proteins. 

OH and C-5-OH, similar to the kinds of phosphodiester linkages found in the tei-choic acids. The nucleic acids have their ribose-reducing carbon substituted by purines and pyrimidines in A -glycosidic linkages (see Fig. 6.22). The two polymers, RNA and DNA, are very similar in structure the former is composed of d-ribofuranose, and the latter is composed of 2-deoxy-D-ribofuranose. The latter also has the pyrimidine, thymine, substituted for uracil, the pyrimidine found in RNA. Even though it is widely recognized that the purine and pyrimidine bases... 

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