Which of the following do proteins and nucleic acids have in common?
D. They are large polymers. Proteins are polymers made up of amino acid monomers which are covalently bonded together. The bond between amino acids is called a peptide bond and proteins are sometimes referred to as polypeptides. Nucleic acids are polymers made up of nucleotide monomers which are covalently bonded together. A nucleotide has a Phosphate group, a 5 carbon sugar and a nitrogenous base. A nucleic acid consists of many nucleotides that are bonded with the phosphate group of one nucleotide forming a covalent bond with the OH group on the sugar of the previous nucleotide in the chain. Nucleic acids are sometimes referred to as polynucleotides.
None of these answers is correct. Answer a is true only of proteins. Answer b is true for nucleic acids, which contain either ribose or deoxyribose. Some proteins have sugars attached, and they are called glycoproteins, but not all proteins are glycoproteins. Answer c is not true of all proteins. Many proteins have regions that are hydrophobic and other regions that are hydrophylic. Answer d is true only of proteins. Nucleic acids do form polymers, but the nucleic acids are only the building blocks. Answer e is wrong for all of them. Nucleic acids do not consist of monomer subunits, they are monomer subunits. Proteins consist of amino acids, but there are more than four of them.
