DNA and RNA share many common characteristics, as they are both nucleic acids. One of the key differences is that DNA use a deoxyribose sugar while RNA uses a ribose sugar. It should be noted that while RNA is typically assumed to be single stranded, it can still exhibit complementary base pairing. As a result, the guanine and cytosine base pairing can still take place.

DNA is negatively charged because of the sugar-phosphate backbone. Histones are rich in lysine residues because they are positively charged and are ideal for DNA to wrap around. If the lysines became glutamates, the histone would overall have a negative charge, causing the DNA to bind weakly to each histone. The function of introducing negative supercoils would be reduced, and ubiquitination would not be affected.

Primase is an enzyme used in the replication of DNA. DNA polymerase synthesizes DNA in a 5' to 3' direction, so it needs a free 3' end to begin its replication from. The primase constructs an RNA substrate with a free 3' end, that binds complementary to the unwound and single-stranded DNA template that is about to be replicated. 

A codon is a set of three nucleic acids on the messenger RNA that codes for an amino acid. The start codon is AUG. In this strand, AUG is the first codon, the second is UUA, and the third is GCG.

After DNA Polymerase 1 replaces the RNA primers with DNA. DNA ligase then comes along and uses an ATP for energy as it connects the 3' and 5' ends of the DNA gap, completing the replication of the template strand. 

There are 3 conformations of the DNA molecule. The B form is in chromosomal DNA, the A form is representative of DNA-RNA hybrids. The Z form of DNA appears in poly GC (poly guanine, cytosine) sequences.

The deoxyribose–phosphate backbone of DNA is on the outside (hydrophylic) of the helix while the hydrophobic bases are inside. The classical B form, found in chromosomal DNA, and predicted by Watson and Crick, is a right-handed helix with 10 bases per turn of helix. The number of bases is different in Z and A DNA helix conformations.

Phosphate groups attach to the 5' carbon of the nucleosides forming nucleotides. Phosphodiester bonds of DNA form between the 3'-hydroxyl group of the deoxy pentose of one nucleotide and the 5'-hydroxyl group of the deoxy pentose of another nucleotide.Deoxythymidine is the deoxynucleotide with thymine as its base. It can be mono-, di, or tri- phosphorylated as deoxythymidine mono-, di- or triphosphate.

The pentose phosphate pathway (also known as the hexose monophosphate shunt or HMS), mainly serves to produce  for anabolic reduction reactions and ribose-5-phosphate for nucleic acid production.

A nucleoside is composed of both a nitrogenous base as well as a sugar. Cytosine and adenine are just nitrogenous bases. Guanosine monophosphate (or GMP) is also composed of a phosphate group, which designates it as a nucleotide. The only nucleoside is adenosine.