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nucleotide
A nucleotide is an organic molecule
consisting of a nitrogenous base (a purine or a pyrimidine), a pentose sugar (deoxyribose
in DNA or ribose in RNA), and a phosphate or polyphosphate group. (A nucleoside
is similar, except that it contains only the sugar and base, without a
phosphate.)
Nucleotides are the monomers of nucleic acids and also play important roles
in cellular energy transport and transformations (notably ATP and NAD+/NADH) and
in enzyme regulation.
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