A question about nucleic acids

[samy4408]

Hello , is minor bases and Nucleoside the same thing ?

 

[pinball1970]

Hello , is minor bases and Nucleoside the same thing ?

Wiki has a stack on this, plus you have a decent biochem textbook?

 

[Godot_]

In brief:

There are minor base nucleosides. So, in a fashion, they can be the same thing.

Otherwise: No.

 

[TeethWhitener]

"Minor base" simply refers to the fact that the nucleobase isn't adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, or uracil. Other purines and pyrimidines occur in the body, but to a much lower extent than the main ones you find in DNA and RNA.

A nucleoside is what you get when you bind a nucleobase to a sugar (ribose in the case of RNA and deoxyribose in the case of DNA). And a nucleotide is what happens when that nucleoside is bound to a phosphate group. The polymerization of this phosphate/sugar backbone gives you nucleic acids.