Question
Chemistry Question on Biomolecules
Which nitrogen base is not present in RNA?
Answer
Thymine (T) is not present in RNA. Instead, RNA contains the nitrogenous base uracil (U), which is similar in structure to thymine but lacks a methyl group. Both thymine and uracil are pyrimidine bases, but thymine is found only in DNA, while uracil is found only in RNA.
In RNA, uracil pairs with adenine (A) in the complementary strand, while in DNA, thymine pairs with adenine. This base pairing allows for the formation of the double-stranded structures in both DNA and RNA.