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What are nucleic acids? What is the historic origin of this name?

Nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, are the molecules responsible for the hereditary information that commands the protein synthesis in the living beings. The name “nucleic” derives from the fact that they were discovered (by the Swiss biochemist Friedrich Miescher, in 1869) within the cell nucleus. In that time it was not known that those substances contained the hereditary information.

Of what units are nucleic acids constituted? What are the chemical entities that compose that unit?

Nucleic acids are formed by sequences of nucleotides.

Nucleotides are constituted by one molecule of sugar (ribose in DNA and deoxyribose in RNA) bound to one molecule of phosphate and to one nitrogen-containing base (adenine, uracil, cytosine or guanine, in RNA, and adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine, in DNA).

What are pentoses? To what organic group do pentoses belong? Are nucleotides formed of only one type of pentose?

Pentoses are carbohydrates made of five carbons. Deoxyribose is the pentose that constitutes DNA nucleotides and ribose is the pentose that is part of RNA nucleotides.