"Phosphorus is essential to all forms of life," said Northwestern's Ludmilla Aristilde, who led the study. "The backbone of DNA contains phosphate. So, all life on Earth, including humans, depends on ...

Phosphate is essential for making various life-forming compounds, such as nucleotides, which are the building blocks of DNA and RNA. Phosphate is found in every living being, but it is extremely ...

The double-stranded DNA that results from this pattern of bonding looks much like a ladder with sugar-phosphate side supports and base-pair rungs. Note that because the two polynucleotides that ...

The sides of the DNA ladder consist of a long string of sugar and phosphate molecules, to which the bases are attached. Each sugar-phosphate-base combination is called a nucleotide. A nucleotide ...

The sugar-phosphate backbone forms the structural framework of nucleic acids, including DNA and RNA. This backbone is composed of alternating sugar and phosphate groups, and defines directionality ...

DNA, which stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, resembles a long, spiraling ladder. It consists of just a few kinds of atoms: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Combinations of these ...

Scientists have uncovered that iron oxides, previously thought to trap phosphorus, actually help convert it into a ...

The basic units (monomers) of DNA are nucleotides. These nucleotides consist of a deoxyribose sugar, phosphate and base. The nucleotides are identical except for the base, which can be an adenine ...