NASA scientists found amino acids, key minerals, and nucleobases for DNA in samples from the OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission. It's a win for alien life.

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 ...

Phosphorus is the structural backbone of the phosphate nucleotides in DNA and RNA, Natalie Hinkel, a planetary astrophysicist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, told me via email.

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 ...

In DNA, 2-deoxy-D-ribose molecules link together through phosphate groups to form a sugar-phosphate backbone. This backbone provides the structural framework for DNA, holding the nitrogenous bases ...

She had found that DNA can exist in two forms, depending on the relative humidity in the surrounding air. This had helped her deduce that the phosphate part of the molecule was on the outside.

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 ...

Scientists found phosphates and clay ... environment to help synthesize them into complex ingredients — like the DNA nucleobases that the NASA team discovered. That synthesis is a key step ...