Title: nucleic acids
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - nucleic acids
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.N04245
Status: current

Definition
Macromolecules, the major organic matter of the nuclei of biological cells, made up of nucleotide units, and hydrolysable into certain pyrimidine or purine bases (usually adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, uracil), ᴅ-ribose or 2-deoxy-ᴅ-ribose and phosphoric acid. 

Related Terms
- deoxyribonucleic acids: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/D01597
- nucleotide: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/N04255
- purine bases: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/P04953
- pyrimidine: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/P04958
- ribonucleic acids: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/R05386

Source
- PAC, 1995, 67, 1307. 'Glossary of class names of organic compounds and reactivity intermediates based on structure (IUPAC Recommendations 1995)' on page 1352 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199567081307)

Related References
- PAC, 1992, 64, 143. 'Glossary for chemists of terms used in biotechnology (IUPAC Recommendations 1992)' on page 161 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199264010143)
- White Book, 2nd ed., p. 110 (https://iupac.qmul.ac.uk/bibliog/white.html)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/N04245/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/N04245/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/N04245/xml

Citation: Citation: 'nucleic acids' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.N04245
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Accessed: 2026-04-30T16:34:58+00:00