The kind of sugar found in a nucleotide depends on whether the nucleotide is part of DNA or RNA.
- In DNA nucleotides, the sugar is deoxyribose, which is a five-carbon sugar lacking one oxygen atom on the 2' carbon compared to ribose.
- In RNA nucleotides, the sugar is ribose, which is a five-carbon sugar with a hydroxyl group (-OH) on the 2' carbon.
Thus, nucleotides contain either ribose (in RNA) or deoxyribose (in DNA) as their sugar component.
