Formation of phosphodiester bond

(Answer supplemented with whiteboard annotations) As previously mentioned at GCSE, the sugarphosphate backbone is formed by a condensation reaction between the phosphate group of one DNA molecule and the deoxyribose sugar of another DNA molecule. We wil now explore how this occurs in a greater detail and illustrate this with cyclical annotations. The key concept to understand is the the condensation reation involves the removal of water from the 5 prime hydroxyl of the phosphate group and the 3 prime hydroxyl of the deoxyribose sugar. What remains is the removal of water and a phosphodiesterbond between two DNA molecules (This will be clear for the tutee by the annotations provided).

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Answered by Mizanur R. Biology tutor

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