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Nucleotide Structure

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A nucleotide, a nucleic acid's monomer, is built from a nitrogenous base, a five-carbon sugar, and one or more phosphate groups.

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One nucleotide's phosphate group links to the sugar of the next nucleotide, building a chain with a repeating sugar-phosphate backbone.

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The nitrogenous base varies from nucleotide to nucleotide along a chain; the sugar-phosphate backbone linking them stays the same throughout.