Nitrogened bases

Nitrogenous bases are cyclic organic compounds, with two or more nitrogen atoms, which constitute a fundamental part of nucleotides, and nucleic acids. From the point of view of Biology there are five main nitrogenous bases, which are classified into two groups.

Bases púricas (derived from the structure of purine) such as: Guanine and Adenine

The Guanine:

Characterized by its shape and by the two hydrogen bonds that it possesses in the zones demarcated with blue circles.

 

The Adenine:

With the same link by the nitrogens but changing their location in one of them in addition to one more hydrogen and a bond with an amidogen ion in a carbon.

It should be noted that the Púricas bases stand out for their shape with a hexagon attached to a pentagon as seen in the images of their chemical structure.

Pyrimidine bases (derived from the structure of pyrimidine) such as Cytosine, Thymine, and Uracil.

The Cytosine:

Characterized by its bond with an amidogen ion in one of its carbons and also a bound oxygen.

  

The Timine:

Noted for its link to a methyl, in addition to its two oxygens.

The Uracil:

With two oxygen bonds.

To clarify the puricas and Pyrimidine bases are differentiated by their structure, since while some present pentagons linked to hexagons, primitives only present hexagons in their chemical structure.

For convenience, each base is represented by the indicated letter. The nitrogenous bases are complementary to each other, that is, they form pairs in the same way that a key and its lock would. Adenine and thymine are complementary (A-T), as are guanine and cytosine (G-C). As there is no thymine in RNA, complementarity is established between adenine and uracil (A-U). The complementarity of the bases is the key to the structure of DNA and has important implications, since it allows processes such as the DNA replication and translation already mentioned.