which nitrogenous base is the complementary base for thymine
Nitrogenous base In the biological sciences, nitrogenous bases are increasingly termed nucleobases because of their role in nucleic acids - their flat shape is particularly important when considering their roles as the building blocks of DNA and RNA. A set of five nitrogenous bases is used in the construction of nucleotides, which in turn build up nucleic acids like DNA and RNA. These nitrogenous bases are adenine (A), uracil (U), guanine (G), thymine (T), and cytosine (C). The nitrogenous bases form hydrogen bonds between opposing DNA strands to form the rungs of the "twisted ladder" or double helix of DNA or a biological catalyst that is found in the nucleotides. Adenine is always paired with thymine, and guanine is always paired with cytosine. These are known as base pairs. Uracil is only present in RNA, replacing thymine. Pyrimidines include thymine, cytosine, and uracil. They have a single ring structure. Purines include adenine and guanine. They have a double ring structure.[3]
Nucleic acid structure The nitrogen bases adenine and guanine are purine in structure and form a glycosidic bond between their 9 nitrogen and the 1' -OH group of the deoxyribose. Cytosine, thymine and uracil are pyrimidines, hence the glycosidic bonds forms between their 1 nitrogen and the 1' -OH of the deoxyribose. For both the purine and pyrimidine bases, the phosphate group forms a bond with the deoxyribose sugar through an ester bond between one of its negatively charged oxygen groups and the 5' -OH of the sugar.[2] The polarity in DNA and RNA is derived from the oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the backbone. Nucleic acids are formed when nucleotides come together through phosphodiester linkages between the 5' and 3' carbon atoms.[3] A Nucleic acid sequence is the order of nucleotides within a DNA (GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule that is determined by a series of letters. Sequences are presented from the 5' to 3' end and determine the covalent structure of the entire molecule. Sequences can be complementary to another sequence in that the base on each position is complementary as well as in the reverse order. An example of a complementary sequence to AGCT is TCGA. DNA is double-stranded containing both a sense strand and an antisense strand. Therefore, the complementary sequence will be to the sense strand.[4]