What is one of the fundamental compounds of nucleic acid?

One of the fundamental compounds of nucleic acid is the nucleotide. A nucleotide is composed of three parts: a nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar, and a phosphate group. The nitrogenous base can be adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine or uracil, depending on the type of nucleic acid. The pentose sugar is either ribose, which is found in RNA, or deoxyribose, which is found in DNA. The phosphate group is responsible for the negative charge of nucleotides and is what allows them to link together through phosphodiester bonds to form the backbone of the nucleic acid. Nucleotides are the building blocks of DNA and RNA and serve to store genetic information as well as participate in cellular functions such as energy transfer and signaling pathways.