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DNA Structure - At its most fundamental level, life is chemistry. All living things are made of  molecules. Moreover, life is sustained by thousands of chemical reactions, and life would be impossible without these reactions. Therefore, in order to have a fundamental understanding of life and of the genetic material we must know something about its chemistry.

DNA molecule is a long polymer of nucleotides with nucleotides as basic units. Each nucleotide is composed of

1. a phosphate group

2. a five carbon sugar or pentose

3. a cyclic nitrogen containing compound called a base