Q23. Which moieties of nucleosides are involved in the formation of phosphodiester linkages present in dinucleotides? What does the word diester in the name of linkage indicate? Which acid is involved in the formation of this linkage?
Answer: Phosphoric acid is involved in the formation of phosphodiester linkage. The word ‘diester’ in this linkage indicates that two −OH groups of phosphoric acid are involved in forming two ester linkages. In the formation of dinucleotides, the 3−OH group of the pentose sugar of one nucleotide unit and the 5−OH group of the pentose sugar of the other nucleotide unit are involved in generating the phosphodiester linkage.
