Question

what are some examples of necleotides that are important physiologically and that do not form a nucleic acid?

Answer 1

Nucleic acids are the genetic material of an organism that retain the genetic information and perform cellular processes through regulation and expression of genes. These are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA).

Nucleic acids are made up of nitrogenous base, five carbon sugar backbone and a phosphate group. Together all these are termed as nucleotides and act as monomer to form the nucleic acid chain that form either DNA or RNA.

There are certain monomer nucleotides that play important role within a cell. This includes their role in metabolism; like in different biochemical reactions these carry energy in the form of nucleoside triphosphates. Some nucleoside triphosphates are Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), Guanine triphosphate (GTP), Cytidine triphosphate (CTP) and Uridine triphosphate (UTP). These play important physiological functions during amino acid, protein and cellular membrane synthesis.

In intracellular signaling nucleotides are important parts in transmitting information down the cell signaling pathway in the form of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) and cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP).

The nucleotides also act as important cofactors of an enzymatic reaction in the form of Coenzyme A, Flavin Adenine dinucleotide (FAD), Flavin adenine monophosphate (FMN), Nicotinamine adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and Nicotinamine adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP+).