AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -A deoxyribonucleotide is composed of 3 parts: a molecule of the 5-carbon sugar deoxyribose, a nitrogenous base, and a phosphate group. There are four nitrogenous bases found in DNA: adenine, guanine, cytosine, or thymine.

Detailed explanation-2: -DNA is always synthesized in the 5’-to-3’ direction, meaning that nucleotides are added only to the 3’ end of the growing strand. As shown in Figure 2, the 5’-phosphate group of the new nucleotide binds to the 3’-OH group of the last nucleotide of the growing strand.

Detailed explanation-3: -The central enzyme involved is DNA polymerase, which catalyzes the joining of deoxyribonucleoside 5′-triphosphates (dNTPs) to form the growing DNA chain.

Detailed explanation-4: -One of the key molecules in DNA replication is the enzyme DNA polymerase. DNA polymerases are responsible for synthesizing DNA: they add nucleotides one by one to the growing DNA chain, incorporating only those that are complementary to the template.